1.7 Funding youth policy
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How youth policy is funded
At the end of each year, the Government of the Republic of Croatia drafts a proposal for the state budget for the next year and discuss this at the Croatian Parliament. Once the Croatian Parliament adopts the state budget, the Croatian Government can use it. The State Budget contains a budget line related to the implementation of youth policy.
Other ministries responsible for the implementation of certain measures from the National Youth Programme do not have special line items for the implementation of these measures, but funds are put in budgetary positions specific to their competence.
Financial resources for the implementation of the National Youth Programme are ensured not only from the state budget but also those provided on the basis of the Decree on the criteria for defining beneficiaries and ways of allocating a portion of proceeds from the state lottery funds. The Government of the Republic of Croatia shall adopt the decree at the beginning of each year for the current year.
The Central State Office for Demography and Youth, according to the annual Financial Plan for current year spends around 0,4% of the total budget for the area of youth policy. According to the Financial Plan for 2022, it is planned to spend 0.37% of financial resources for the area of "youth policy".
What is funded?
The Call for Proposals for Youth-Oriented Projects in 2021 financed 110 projects within 7 priority areas:
1. Active participation of young people in society
1.1. Encouraging young people to actively participate in society (8 projects were awarded a total of 775,000.00 HRK)
1.2. Youth and sustainable community development (5 projects were awarded a total of 572,573.84 HRK)
2. Youth counselling and information, youth leisure organization and support community youth initiatives
2.1. Information centres for young people (5 projects were awarded a total of 518,346.60 HRK)
2.2. Organization of free time of young people through youth clubs (6 projects were awarded a total of 575,000.00 HRK)
2.3. Youth centres (8 projects were awarded a total of HRK 1,067,222.89)
3. Increasing knowledge and skills, employability and competitiveness in the labour market and encouraging social inclusion of young people (work with young people in NEET status) (4 projects were awarded a total of 469,785.40 HRK)
4. Youth in rural areas (23 projects were awarded a total of 2,075,000.00 HRK)
5. Prevention of violence against and among young people (22 projects were awarded a total of HRK 1,675,000.00)
6. Work with young people in areas affected by the earthquake (16 projects were awarded a total of 1,275,000.00 HRK)
7. Prevention of youth addiction (8 projects were awarded a total of 973,443.67 HRK)
The total sum for projects in 2021 amounted to 9,976,372.40 HRK.
The specific objectives of the above-mentioned tenders are:
- Encouraging young people to take on and practice the role of active citizen in various parts of social life and to solve certain social problems,
- Raising the level of information of young people about their rights and opportunities and about the programs and services offered to them in the local community,
- Reduction of all forms of violence against and among young people,
- Preservation of mental health and psychological well-being of young people,
- Prevention of all forms of youth addiction,
- Encouraging civil society organizations to take action to improve the conditions for meeting the needs of young people.
Target groups of the tender include, inter alia, unemployed young people, young people with NEET status, young people in rural areas and young people from earthquake-affected areas.
Use of EU funds
The Central State Office for Demography and Youth is currently implementing the project “Support to the development and expansion of youth work in Croatia”. The funding is envisaged from European Social Fund through the direct assignment. The total amount of the funding is 1,717,046.78 HRK.
The project aims to analyse the existing conditions in the field of youth work in Croatia and to identify needs and possibilities for further development and improvement of quality of youth work.
The main objectives of the project are:
- Increasing the level of knowledge and amount of information on availability and the state of development of youth work
- Influencing the professionalization of youth work and raising the awareness of the public, especially of experts and young people, about relevance of youth work
Some youth and for-youth associations use EU funds.
The EU funds used are Erasmus+. The Agency for Mobility and European Union Programmes (hereinafter referred to as the Agency) was established by the Act on the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes, OG 107/2007 (Zakon o Agenciji za mobilnost i programe Europske unije, NN 121/17) (hereinafter the Act on the Agency) as a public institution with jurisdiction to implement programmes of the European Union - Lifelong Learning Programme and Youth in Action Programme, in accordance with the negotiating position under the Accession Negotiations of the Republic of Croatia and the European Union in Chapter 26, Education and Culture.
The Memorandum of Understanding between the Republic of Croatia and the European Union on the participation of the Republic of Croatia in the Youth in Action Programme and the Lifelong Learning Program 2007-2013 (Official Gazette - International Agreements, No. 4/2011) was signed on 7 December 2010, thus completing the preparatory phase, and since 2011 the full participation of the Republic of Croatia in the aforementioned programmes with equal rights and opportunities as well as for the member states of the European Union and other countries with full participation of the programme beginning. The Memorandum of Understanding entered into force on 30 March 2011.
The budget for the youth field inside Erasmus+ programme for 2021 (proračun – područje mladih unutar Erasmus+ programa) was EUR 4,499,631.00 and for 2022 is EUR 5,130,764.00.