Zagreb expands economic support for Croats in Serbia through agricultural initiative - EXCLUSIVE

The Public Tender for the financing and implementation of the project "Programme for the Development of Agriculture of the Croatian Community in the Republic of Serbia" states that one of the interests of the Republic of Croatia, as prescribed by the Law on Relations of the Republic of Croatia with Croats Outside the Republic of Croatia ("Official Gazette", No. 124/11, 16/12 and 98/25), is to connect with Croats in the Republic of Serbia, support their stay, and preserve their full equality.

This was said by the source at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Croatia in an exclusive interview with CE Report.

This is in accordance with the provisions of the mentioned Law, which stipulates that care for Croats outside the Republic of Croatia is an integral part of the domestic and foreign policy of the Republic of Croatia. The Law also stipulates that the Republic of Croatia is committed to preserving and strengthening the position and identity of Croats outside the Republic of Croatia through the economy, and thus through agriculture as one of the basic economic activities of the Croatian community in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. In this context, the Public Tender also defined the goals of allocating funds within this Programme, which were recognized by the Government of the Republic of Croatia as being of particular importance for the Croatian community in the Republic of Serbia, and for their implementation, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries provided an additional amount of 1 million euros in comparison to the funds provided by the Central State Office for Croats Abroad.

The monitoring and implementation of financial projects of the Croatian community in the Republic of Serbia is carried out by the "Cro-Fond" Foundation, which has individually concluded an agreement with each beneficiary that regulates mutual rights and obligations in the use of allocated funds. Likewise, the "Cro-Fond" Foundation, in accordance with the Decision on the continuation of support for projects of strategic importance for Croats outside the Republic of Croatia, which the Government of the Republic of Croatia adopted at its session on 23 April 2026, has concluded an Agreement on financial support in the use of these funds with the Central State Office for Croats Outside the Republic of Croatia.

Some applications were not considered because the administrative control determined that they did not meet the prescribed conditions from the Public Tender for Financing and Implementation of the Project "Programme for the Development of Agriculture of the Croatian Community in the Republic of Serbia". Acceptable applications were considered by the Project Selection Committee of the Public Tender for Financing and Implementation of the Project Programme for the Development of Agriculture of the Croatian Community in the Republic of Serbia, which evaluated the received applications in accordance with the criteria for evaluating projects from the Public Tender. After this procedure, a ranking list of evaluated projects was compiled, and the available funds were distributed in accordance with the acceptable value of each individual project. Unfortunately, there were insufficient funds for some of the projects, but as this is the first of future tenders, it is not excluded that applicants who participated in this year's tender will receive support from this Programme in one of the tenders in the future.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, in its projections for 2027 and 2028 of this year's State Budget of the Republic of Croatia, has foreseen funds in the same amount as this year for the continuation of financing the projects of agricultural producers who will participate in the upcoming Public Tenders for the financing and implementation of the project "Programme for the Development of Agriculture of the Croatian Community in the Republic of Serbia". How future Public Tenders will be defined within the framework of this Programme will largely depend on communication with agricultural producers who are members of the Croatian community in the Republic of Serbia, on their needs for strengthening the sustainability and competitiveness of their agricultural farms in the coming period.

Photo: Facebook/p/Ministarstvo-poljoprivrede

This interview was prepared by Julian Müller