ZAGREB, May 11, 2019 - Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Marija Pejčinović Burić said on Friday that Croatia's chairmanship of the Council of the European Union would be a great opportunity to present and promote Croatia.
"Any large gathering, not just a political one, when someone comes to our country, is an opportunity to present ourselves," Minister Pejčinović Burić said at a round table discussion on the challenges of Croatia's chairing the European Union in 2020 for international positioning.
"In just over six months, we will have the opportunity, literally every day, sometimes in Zagreb, sometimes in Brussels, to communicate with a lot of people in different formats," she said at the round table, organised as part of a conference on the branding of Croatia.
She said that the activities of the Council of the EU are pretty much set and that the two large topics during Croatia's chairmanship will be Brexit and adopting the next seven-year multiannual financial framework, i.e. the European budget.
The issue of migration and security will also be very important, i.e. reforming the Dublin Agreement and the Schengen Zone, she said and added that Croatia will try to turn the focus during the remainder of that programme toward education, tourism, health and demographic revival.
She added that most of these activities will continue to be conducted in Brussels, but Zagreb will host about thirty events of the greatest importance, including EU ministerial meetings.
Croatia will also organise about 1,400 other events, one being a conference of civil society organisations with about 1,200 participants that will be held in Šibenik.
Events at the highest level, she said, will on the most part be held in Zagreb, because meetings at the highest level, if held anywhere but Zagreb, would cost twice as much, she claimed.
She recalled that Croatia plans to spend about 60 to 70 million euro during its chairmanship, while other member states spent between 50 and 130 million.
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