After Croatia's accession to the EU, the opportunity to use Structural Funds will open. The usage of funds depends on the readiness of institutions involved in the process. The institutions are a part of Operational Structure within which ministries will become Managing Authorities (MA), while projects will be implemented by certain institutions that will become Intermediate Bodies (IB).

By Croatia`s accessing the European Union, HAMAG will, as an Intermediate Body, be in charge of implementing the projects financed from the EU funds, in other words from Structural Funds, defined by the Operational Programme "Regional Competitiveness". The Managing Authority, in charge of the preparation and management of the Operational Programme "Regional Competitiveness", is the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship.

The aim of this project, which was finished in June 2009, was to strengthen the administrative capacity and readiness of the future IBs for the effective usage of EU funds, thereby to increase the amount of spent funds in Croatia. The project lasted 9 months and the budget was EUR 189,283.

The starting point of all the institutions within the Operational Structure, therefore HAMAG’s as well, is the accreditation process. Accreditation is a process of assessing the readiness of established structures for the EU funds management and use, and assessing their capability for the successful EU programmes management.

Three institutions were involved in this project that will start the accreditation process for the future IBs. They are:

• Croatian Agency for SMEs (HAMAG),
• Business Innovation Centre of Croatia (BICRO) and
• Agency for Regional Development (ARD).

HAMAG will implement projects of the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship, BICRO of the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports and ARD of the Ministry of Regional Development, Forestry and Water Management.