In the last few years, there has been notable progress with regard to the development of transport networks in the Republic of Croatia. After attaining the status of the accession country in June 2004, Croatia benefited from various pre-accession instruments provided by the European Union relevant to the transport sector, namely on ISPA (Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession) and IPA (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance) getting big impact in the Croatian transport sector. In order to ensure an uninterrupted structural adjustment process in the transport sector and the utilisation of the finance under the IPA Component III –Regional Development, Croatia drafted a Transport Operational Programme (TOP) for the period 2007-2013.

The TOP covers the key issues and information such as the transport policy background, status of transposition of EU transport acquis into national legislation, transport sector assessment and strategies and measures to meet transport sector development needs, in line with accession and post accession requirements. Croatia has also maintained an active role in cooperation under the Memorandum of Understanding on development of the South-East Europe Core Regional Transport Network and has continued implementation of the multi-annual development plan for 2011-2015 for the South East Europe Transport Observatory (SEETO). Since the Republic of Croatia joined the EU on1 July 2013, the definition of its transport infrastructure development, mainly according to the framework of EU transport policies is crucial.