Even though there are 6 different cycling programmes currently funded by EU funds, Croatian cities are not applying.
According to the European Cyclists Federation and its new Monitoring Observatory which lists all EU funded Cycling programs, Croatia can withdraw almost 1,2 billion kuna for various cycling projects in the period between 2014 and 2020, Monitor.hr reports on March 30, 2016.
After this data was made public, association Cyclists’ Union sent an inquiry to 6 Croatian cities asking for answers on investments in cycling programmes. As expected, they received information that Koprivnica is still the most cycling friendly city in Croatia with substantial investments in sustainable transport, especially in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.
Cities such as Samobor, Metković and Pula transparently show small investments in cycling, while Rijeka was an unpleasant surprise because it has no planned investments in existing or new cycling infrastructure in 2016. As far as transparency goes, Zagreb was at the very bottom of the list, with cycling investments totaling, on average, less than 1% of all transport investments for the third year in a row.
Cities in Northern Europe invest approximately 20-25€ per capita directly into cycling infrastructure while cities in South East Europe invest a lot less. For instance, Zagreb, with its total transport and traffic infrastructure budget of 550 million kuna per year only invests between few tens of thousands and few hundred thousand kuna per year, mostly to mark new yellow cycling lines on pedestrian surfaces. If we calculate the annual investment in cycling infrastructure per capita, that would mean Zagreb only invests between 10 lipa and 1 kuna per capita.
According to the European Cyclists’ Federation Monitoring Observatory, the following EU-funded programmes are currently available:
European programs
Trans-European Transport Networks (TEN-T)
Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME)
Cross-border programs
(Interreg V-A) IT-HR – Italy-Croatia
INTERREG V – B MEDITERRANEAN (MED) COOPERATION PROGRAMME 2014-2020
Interreg V-B ADRIATIC-IONIAN COOPERATION PROGRAMME 2014-2020
National programs
Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020 2014HR16M1OP001 – 1.2
For more information, visit the Monitoring Observatory page for Croatia and apply if you think you have an interesting project.
