On 1st January 2007 Bulgaria and Romania became members of the European Union and ceased being beneficiaries of pre-accession assistance including ISPA. The accession of these two countries left Croatia as the only recipient of ISPA assistance. This report therefore only covers the ISPA activities carried out by Croatia.
The year 2009 witnessed significant progress in the pace of project implementation in Croatia although unfortunately this was not reflected in a corresponding increase in ISPA payments. The main reason for this was that a number of major tenders launched during the year had not been completed by the end of the year due to complications in the tendering process. Despite this it is worth noting a continual flow of the number of interim payment requests made during the year which is evidence of continued physical implementation.
Despite the lack of visible physical implementation progress in payments and contracting it should be noted that 2009 was not an unsuccessful year for ISPA in Croatia. Several critical tenders were finally launched after resolving a series of significant and difficult technical and legal issues. Furthermore both the Implementing Agency and the final beneficiaries made strenuous efforts to ensure deadlines were met and that technical documentation was of the required standard. The result of these efforts was that the physical implementation of all the 6 ISPA projects in Croatia will be underway by early 2010.