EUROPEAN STRUCTURAL AND INVESTMENT FUNDS (ESIFS) AND REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN CROATIA

Through its cohesion policy, the EU provides significant funds mainly for convergence regions. Croatia, as the newest EU Member State, and its two NUTS2(ii) regions are lagging behind the average EU development (GDP p.c.). The amount available under European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIFs) for Croatia in the 2007-2013 period was 858 million EUR, and in the 2014-2020 period it was 10.7 billion EUR. The paper aims to find out how the contracted amounts under ESIFs impacted the development of Croatian counties (NUTS3) in the period from 2013 to 2017. Results obtained through a panel data analysis show a very low positive impact of contracted ESIFs on GDP p. c. of Croatian counties. Even though the research is pioneering work faced with certain weaknesses related to data (non )availability, it can provide certain guidelines on the unexplored aspects of ESIFs' influence.