ZAGREB, February 17, 2019 - Theresa May is cleaning up the Brexit mess left by her predecessor David Cameron, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday, sympathising with the British prime minister's efforts to take her country out of the European Union in an orderly manner.
Britons voted in favour of Brexit at a 2016 referendum called by former Prime Minister David Cameron, who wanted the United Kingdom to remain in the EU. He resigned after the referendum and left her successor May, who was also against Brexit, to agree a "divorce" deal with the EU.
"It was a completely unnecessary referendum and we are all living with the consequences of the bad political assessments of the previous British prime minister," Plenković said at a security conference in Munich.
"Frankly speaking, Theresa May is actually cleaning up someone else's mess," Plenković said, adding that an orderly and predictable Brexit was important for Croatia.
"We regret that decision. We think it is not good, it is indeed bad both for Britain and for the EU, but we are working with other members to ensure that it is conducted in an orderly fashion," he added.
Apart from speaking about Brexit during a discussion on the future of Europe, Plenković also discussed the matter with the European Commission's chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
The Croatian prime minister met with Markus Soeder, the premier of Bavaria, where 100,000 Croats live, including 50,000 in Munich. Bavarians account for one third of all tourists who visit Croatia.
Plenković discussed the 2021-2027 European budget with European Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and told him that the cohesion and agriculture policy funds and the security and migration funds were most important to Zagreb.
The Croatian prime minister also met with Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, and later in the day he was due to meet with Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, and the head of the European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber.
More news on Croatia and Brexit can be found in the Politics section.
