EU Programmes

National Foundation amd EU Programmes

In line with its mission, programme objectives and basic activities, the National Foundation for Civil Society Development has gone through two stages in all the activities related to enabling civil society organisations for the use of and participation in EU programmes:

• 2004 - 2006 – when it was in the preparatory stage for acquiring the status of an intermediary body and when it provided consulting services for the EC Delegation by implementing tendering procedures and monitoring project implementation within the “CARDS 2002 – Provision of services in health protection, social welfare and non-formal education” grant scheme under Service Contract number 96498, concluded with the European Commission on 11 March 2005 ... more

• Period from 2006 to 2010 – when, following the decision that the implementing authority for the use of EU funds and programmes for civil society organisations in the Republic of Croatia will be the Office for Cooperation with NGOs, it continued to work on strengthening the capacities of civil society organisations for participation in European integration processes through training (in cooperation with ECAS – European Citizen Action Service from Brussels), availability of information (publication of the Croatian version of the books: A Guide to European Union Funding for NGOs, and Guide to EU Associations), and continuous provision of information on the activities of civil society organisations in the European Union through the electronic newsletter “Civilnodruštvo.EU”.

• Period from 2010 to date – pursuant to the decision of the Croatian Government on the strategic documents and institutional framework for the use of EU structural instruments in the Republic of Croatia (OG 116/2010), and the audits conducted for the purpose of accrediting the National Foundation as the implementation authority for component IV of IPA programme, OP Human Resources Development, on 16 August 2012 the National Foundation also received the decision on accreditation from the European Commission. The National Foundation was accredited as the Intermediate Body level 2, for Measure 2 of Priority 5 – Strengthening of the role of civil society organisations for socio-economic growth and democratic development. Within IPA component IV, three calls were launched for projects in the area of civil society: Support structures for CSOs at the regional level; Supporting CSOs capacity for advocacy and motivation programmes for socially excluded groups; Supporting the contribution of CSOs acting in the field of volunteering to the strengthening of economic and social cohesion.

European Social Fund

The European Social Fund – ESF, is a structural instrument established in 1958, with the purpose of achieving strategic objectives of the employment policy in European regions affected by high unemployment rates, aimed at creating economic and social harmonisation on the level of the entire European Union, all within the convergence objective.

Following its accession to the European Union, Croatia has obtained the right to use this instrument in order to be able to implement national policies focused on increasing employment.