ZAGREB, February 17, 2020 - Raising the topic of enlargement to Southeast European countries to the highest level in the EU and changing the atmosphere about it will a big, positive political legacy of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Sunday.

As premier of the country presiding the Council, he attended an informal working dinner of European Council President Charles Michel, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell with the leaders of Croatia's six Southeast European neighbours which are candidates or potential candidates for EU membership.

The meeting was held as part of preparations for a summit of leaders of all EU member states leaders and Western Balkan countries in Zagreb on May 6-7.

Plenković described the meeting as very good and timely. "We positioned the topic of Southeast Europe high on the agenda of EU institutions," he said, adding that Greece, Austria and Italy had announced such preparatory meetings prior to the Zagreb Summit.

"This means that we have mobilised EU member states about this topic to a level that didn't exist. Most important for us before the Zagreb meeting is to resolve the issue of the opening of negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, and we will try to have that decision adopted in March."

Plenković said he wanted the Commission to present in Zagreb a strong investment package for Southeast Europe, that summits between the EU and the countries in that region be held at least every two years, and that those countries gradually meet membership criteria and raise their citizens' living standards on the membership journey. "That will be a big, positive legacy of the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU for our six neighbouring countries."

Plenković said that next week, at an EU27 summit, he would talk which the prime ministers of Denmark and the Netherlands, which had reservations in October regarding the opening of negotiations with Albania. France, which had the strongest objections, has changed its position after the Commission put forward a new accession negotiations methodology.

Plenković said that during Croatia's EU presidency he would also try to solve the visa liberalisation issue for Kosovo citizens. "Croatia believes Kosovo has met the criteria for waiving visas. There are several countries which don't share that view but I believe that, in intensive negotiations within the Council and in a generally better atmosphere, we could find a solution to an important issue for Kosovo citizens."

Prior to the meeting, von der Leyen said it was in the EU's geostrategic interest to have the closest relations possible with Western Balkan countries, confirming that the Commission was preparing an investment package for the region for the Zagreb Summit.

Michel said he expected honest, open and constructive talks on partnership with the leaders of the six Western Balkan countries.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 17, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Sunday described European Council President Charles Michel's draft EU 2021-27 budget as an attempt at a compromise that still needed a lot of work, saying he was pleased the draft took into consideration Croatia's most important demands.

"I think Michel tried to find a compromise, but there will still be many difficult and demanding negotiations this week," he said in Brussels.

On Friday, Michel proposed a €1,094 billion budget for the EU in the 2021-27 period, which is 1.074% of the 27 member states' gross national income. The European Commission has proposed a €1,135 billion budget (1.114% of the GNI).

Although Michel is proposing less funds for the cohesion policy than the Commission and in relation to the 2014-20 budget, he is proposing a somewhat different distribution between poor and rich regions. Regions whose GDP is above 75% of the European average would receive more money and those whose GDP per capita is above 100% of the European average would lose €7 billion.

Croatia's two statistical regions, Adriatic Croatia and Continental Croatia, are below 75% of the European average. As of 2023, Croatia will have four statistical regions. Three will remain below 75% of the European average while the City of Zagreb GDP is above it.

Michel's proposal clearly reflects two demands which Plenković has been underlining in the EU budget negotiations - to consider the fact that Croatia is the youngest member state which has utilised only one seven-year EU budget and to take account of the population losses in a number of the member states, including Croatia.

Michel's proposal envisages a separate paragraph for Croatia which says that less developed regions in the member states which utilised only one cohesion policy programme period are entitled to an additional allocation of €300 million for their least developed regions. Only Croatia fits this description. The proposal also envisages additional funds for countries with big population losses.

"That paragraph is the fruit of our talks and the interpretation of the status Croatia has as the youngest member state. We also included the population issue which, after Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, was also acknowledged by... Michel, meaning that there are member states which have the problem of a part of their citizens leaving for more developed member states and therefore it's necessary to find adequate funds for the population policy," Plenković said.

He reiterated, however, that there was still a lot of work before a favourable agreement on the next EU budget was reached. "But we are on the right track, we will negotiate more, we have work to do and Croatia and its citizens deserve to have adequate funds also in the next seven years because that was the point of our EU membership."

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 16, 2020 - Europe should reach a new consensus on how to protect its citizens and that consensus should be based on the rule of law, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Sunday.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference 2020, Plenković said that due to differences between member-states, citizens' expectation to feel safe had not been entirely met.

Plenković, whose country is chairing the EU, said that the new consensus should be based on European values, primarily the rule of law.

The rule of law is the main foundation of our values, he stressed. Democracy, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law strengthen one another to the point where one cannot exist without the other, he said.

Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova, too, defended the foundations of liberal democracy in Europe, saying that the rule and spirit of law must remain intact.

Only then can we have a Europe that fully protects. The rule of law in its essence is about respect for the truth, she said.

The two officials did not mention explicitly any EU member country but EU members Hungary and Poland are faced with criticism that they violate European values, which is why they could lose their voting rights and money from European funds.

The ruling Hungarian party Fidesz of Prime Minister Viktor Orban was suspended over breaches of European values from the European People's Party (EPP), to which PM Plenković's HDZ belongs.

"A Europe that protects" was a topic of discussion at the leading world forum on international security policy in Munich and it is one of the priorities of Croatia's EU presidency in the first half of 2020.

The new European guidelines in the area of freedom, security and justice will be based on mutual trust, territorial integrity and new technologies and artificial intelligence, Plenković said.

Those principles will continue to be developed in a new pact on migration and asylum which the European Commission is expected to present in the spring.

Despite differences between member-states, there is an agreement on the pact's goals, primarily the need to simplify the asylum system so that decisions can be made in the most efficient way and in the interest of all persons involved, said Plenković.

We need a more organised management of migrations, with real time monitoring, early warnings and a joint coordinated response, he added.

Zagreb will also advocate assistance by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency to Southeast European countries in the protection of their borders and in halting illegal migrations before they reach EU borders.

Speaking of threats that require a joint European response, Plenković also cited terrorism, cyber-attacks, hybrid warfare, terrorist content on the Internet, child sexual abuse and protection of critical infrastructure and public spaces.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 16, 2020 - The Permanent Representation of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union started posting on its website information on meetings of the permanent representative and her deputy with representatives of interest groups with the aim of ensuring transparency.

A list of all meetings held by Permanent Representative Irena Andrassy and her deputy Goran Štefanić from 28 October 2019 to 6 February this year was posted on Wednesday on the website of the Permanent Representation.

This practice will continue and all meetings of the Permanent Representative and her deputy with lobbyists who signed up to the EU's transparency register will be published online.

The web page (http://eu.mvep.hr/hr/predstavnistvo/transparentnost/) will contain information on the date of the meeting, the name of the interest group and names of people who attended the meeting.

The ambassador to the EU of the country holding the presidency chairs the Committee of the Permanent Representatives of the Governments of the Member States to the European Union (COREPER). There are two configurations of the Committee: COREPER I and COREPER II. Meetings of COREPER I are chaired by the deputy permanent representative, while those of COREPER II are chaired by the permanent representative. COREPER is the main preparatory body of the Council of the EU.

The Presidency trio of Romania, Finland and Croatia, which hold the Council presidency from early 2019 to mid-2020, has pledged to meet representatives of interest groups only on the condition that they sign up to the transparency register.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 16, 2020 - Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Munich on Saturday that he was satisfied that France's position on EU enlargement had "evolved" and that the prospect of the EU launching accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania was good.

Last year Paris blocked the launching of accession talks with the two Balkan countries, asking that before further EU enlargement the methodology of talks be changed and that Skopje and Tirana do more in the fight against corruption.

Nonetheless, French President Emmanuel Macron said at the Munich Security Conference 2020 on Saturday that he would support the launching of talks with North Macedonia and Albania if the European Commission gave a positive assessment of their progress in March.

Speaking to reporters on the margins of the Munich conference, Plenković said that "France's position has evolved".

"I do not expect France to block the opening of talks now that the methodology has been changed," he said.

"Additional talks are to be conducted with the other two countries (Denmark and the Netherlands) that had reservations and I think that we are heading in the right direction," said Plenković, whose country is chairing the EU in the first half of 2020.

Plenković expects that the EU will approve the launching of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania before the EU-Western Balkan summit to be held in Zagreb on May 6-7.

Plenković met in Munich with North Macedonian President Stevo Pendarovski and Kosovo's new Prime Minister Albin Kurti, saying that Croatia would help Kosovo in drawing closer to EU membership, including by cancelling visa requirements for Kosovo nationals.

Plenković also held talks with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who said that if the Taliban showed readiness for talks, a gradual withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan, including Croatian troops, could start.

Our 11th contingent is there (with 110 soldiers) and the 12th is getting ready but if agreement is reached, a gradual reduction of the mission in Afghanistan could start, he said.

Plenković promised that his government would continue to support the Three Seas Initiative, after the United States said earlier in the day that it would give up to one billion dollars for investments in the private and public sectors of countries on the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea stretch.

"We have to step up economic, notably energy cooperation in that area. As far as my government is concerned, we have supported the initiative so far and will continue to be actively involved in it," said Plenković.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 13, 2020 - The nongovernmental organisation GONG on Thursday called on the government to use Croatia's EU presidency to enhance the transparency of working procedures for state and European affairs and to bring them closer to citizens.

"Europe cannot be close to citizens if those procedures are very non-transparent, if there is a policy of confidentiality in adopting EU laws. We believe that we have the right to know which decisions regarding European affairs are made on our behalf," GONG executive director Oriana Ivković Novokmet told a news conference.

GONG prepared recommendations for the government and ministers to enhance the transparency of European affairs and its activists were handing out leaflets with those recommendations before today's government session.

One of the recommendations concerns the participation of citizens and the public in shaping national positions. GONG believes that situations such as the one regarding roaming charges, when two Croatian governments acted against citizens' interests and did not support demands for lower roaming charges, must not happen again.

Ivković Novokmet said that the Permanent Representation of Croatia to the EU had supported GONG's request and started publishing a list of its meetings with lobbying groups, based on the model of the Finnish EU presidency.

GONG also believes that the Croatian prime minister and his ministers should do the same.

The NGO also considers sponsorships as disputable.

"The government has shown best what the risk for one's reputation can be because at the moment when the EC defined the new Green Deal it accepted the sponsorship of an oil company," she said.

GONG has also demanded that all documents of the Council of the EU and informal trialogues between the Council, the Commission and the Parliament be published as well.

Asked how realistic it was to really expect that to happen, considering the way European and Croatian bureaucracies work, she said that certain progress was possible regarding transparency.

"There are European Parliament resolutions that call for opening more to citizens and for enhancing citizens' participation because those things encourage euroscepticism... We can see that the Permanent Representation has made a small step forward - even though they do not publish the topics of the meetings - and we expect the same of the prime minister and ministers," Ivković Novokmet said.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 13, 2020 - The Committee of the Regions is an extremely important institution for the Conference on the Future of Europe as without the local level the Conference would not be feasible, European Commission Vice President for Demography and Democracy Dubravka Šuica said in Brussels on Wednesday.

She spoke about the Conference at the first plenary of the Committee of the Regions' new make-up. She is in charge, on behalf of the Commission, of organising the Conference which is expected to start on May 9, Europe Day, and last two years.

We must make it so that citizens see the tangible effects and results of debates, which can be achieved via a feedback mechanism that makes it possible to turn ideas into clear recommendations based on which we will take further steps, Šuica said.

We want to be innovative, to eliminate the gap between institutions and citizens, and local and regional representatives have a key role in that, she added.

Šuica said the Committee of the Regions, although its role is only advisory, would have equal treatment as other EU institutions.

Apostolos Tzitzikostas (EPP), the Committee's new president, said the Conference on the Future of Europe must be an opportunity for genuine debate with citizens and for changing the EU.

It must be open and inclusive. The Conference will not be successful if run vertically, if it is centralised, if it is launched from Brussels and does not actively include local and regional leaders. Only through ambition and openness to change can we restore trust and build an EU that puts citizens first, he added.

Croatian Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica also spoke at the plenary. "We must come closer to citizens, listen to them and respond to their problems more adequately. The expertise of the Committee of the Regions at local level and its experience in organising dialogue with citizens will represent a valuable contribution to this initiative," he said.

The Committee of the Regions today adopted a resolution on the Conference on the Future of Europe and a resolution on the European Commission's work programme.

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 8, 2020 - Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Saturday he would do everything so that in the European Union's next seven-year budget Croatia was given appropriate cohesion funds, which he added were the driver of development and investment.

"We must do everything to get as much as possible now that a big member state, a net contributor, Great Britain, has left the Union," he said in Brussels.

"Alongside Portugal, we are one of those countries in which European funds account for the bulk of public investment. Also, the fact that we have been an EU member state only seven years puts in a special position and I'm sure the colleagues will acknowledge that," Plenković said after talks with European Council President Charles Michel.

They talked as part of preparations for an extraordinary EU-27 summit at which member states' leaders will try to agree the EU's 2021-27 budget. Michel convened the summit for February 20.

Plenković said that when his government took office in 2016, only 9% of the financial envelope for Croatia had been contracted and only 1% paid.

"Today 86% of the funds have been contracted and over 31% paid. That is this government's legacy in the absorption of European funds, which are the driver of agriculture, infrastructure, the economy, equal regional development. We put special emphasis on less developed parts of Croatia such as Slavonia."

Negotiations on the EU's seven-year budgets are always difficult and challenging. This time they are harder because of the departure of the UK, which contributed €12-14 billion to the EU budget. It is also necessary to fund new challenges such as the fight against climate change, migration, and allocations for innovation and digitisation so the EU can keep up with global technological development.

Member states' heads of state or government first have to reach a political agreement on the total budget and the distribution of the funds by sector. This calls for a unanimous decision and reaching a consensus is very difficult.

After leaders reach a consensus, talks begin on legislative acts by sector that are necessary to implement the seven-year budget.

Plenković and Michel also talked about enlargement, negotiations on future relations with the UK, the Conference on the Future of Europe, and the European Green Deal.

More news about Croatia and the European Union can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 8, 2020 - The Croatian EU Presidency is taking place at a decisive period for the future of Europe, when the multiannual EU budget is being decided on, while London and EU are beginning negotiations on future relations, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said for the Italian agency Agenzia Nova.

Politically and economically, the most important topic of the presidency is the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), noted the prime minister.

"We will work on reaching an agreement, along with European Council President Charles Michel, who has taken over the negotiations."

This is one of the most complex topics within the Union, and it is obvious that substantial differences of opinion exist, Plenković said.

"In that context, we will give Michel, who took on the preparation of the 'negotiation box', all the support possible and all while advocating for the acknowledgement of Croatia's specificities as the youngest member of the Union who has had access to European funds for the shortest period," stated Plenković, convinced that an agreement acceptable to all will be reached in the end.

Plenković also noted that Croatia was determined to take on a key role in the process of EU enlargement, because that is in the political, economic, and security interest for Croatia and the whole of the EU.

"That refers mostly to reaching a positive decision on opening accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, as well as conducting regular meetings in various formats such as the Zagreb summit."

More news about Croatia and the EU can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, February 7, 2020 - European Council President Charles Michel has convened for February 16 an informal meeting with Western Balkan countries' leaders which will also be attended by Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković as the premier of the country presiding over the Council of the European Union.

The meeting will also be attended by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell.

The meeting has been convened as part of preparations for an informal summit of all EU member states and Western Balkan states due in Zagreb in May.

On Wednesday, the Commission proposed a new, stricter methodology for EU accession negotiations, which was France's condition for opening them with North Macedonia and Albania.

More news about Croatia and Western Balkans can be found in the Politics section.