The basic instruments of cohesion policy for reducing disparities between individual areas with the aim to promote balanced sustainable development are structural funds and cohesion fund. Beneficiaries access financial resources through decentralized and centralized calls for project applications, which are evaluated by previously known criteria. The purpose of this article is to present the mechanism for efficient drawing of funds from European structural funds. It is based on combining quantitative and qualitative measures and criteria and searching for “beyond state of the art” projects.

Keywords : European cohesion policy, public calls, mechanism for evaluation of projects.