ZAGREB, September 24, 2019 - The European Commission indirectly confirmed on Tuesday that a report on Croatia's meeting criteria for accession to the Schengen area of passport-free travel had not been completed yet but noted that work on the report was progressing well.

The Commission's joint work on successfully completing, as soon as possible, the evaluation for Schengen Area membership, is progressing well. It is the EC's position that Croatia should join the Schengen Area as a full member as soon as it meets the necessary criteria and as soon as possible, the EC said.

EC officials would not say when European commissioners could have the report on whether Croatia meets the Schengen Area membership standards on their agenda.

For a country to join the area of border control-free movement it is not enough to have a positive evaluation from the EC, which testifies only to the country's technical readiness. The final decision is made by member-countries.

Bulgaria and Romania have had the EC's positive opinion for years but are still not in the area because several member-countries oppose it.

More news about the passport-free area can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 16, 2019 - Croatia advocates that negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) should be concluded by the end of the year, but it is likely that the issue will be on the agenda during its presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020, the State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Andreja Metelko-Zgombić, said on Monday in Brussels.

Metelko-Zgombić was attending a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council which among other things discussed the situation with negotiations over the next EU budget for 2021 to 2027.

The European Commission put forward a proposal in May 2018 envisaging a budget of €1135 billion in obligations, which is 1.11% of the Gross National Income (GNI) of the 27 EU member states.

In one of the European Council's earlier conclusions, EU leaders expressed their willingness to complete negotiations on the MFF by the end of this year, but this seems highly unlikely.

"Officials have advocated that it would be good for the negotiations to end and Croatia certainly advocates that a compromise is achieved, which would take into account the 'red lines' or rather the priorities that each member state considers important. Along these lines, we want an agreement to be reached as soon as possible but there is a likelihood that it will await our presidency," Metelko-Zgombić said.

European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Guenther Oettinger underscored the need to agree on the MFF by the end of the year.

“My big concern is that Europe will be in a difficult economic and geopolitical situation if there is no budget by the first of January,” Oettinger said.

He added that if negotiations continue at this pace it will take years to reach a compromise.

The European Parliament and countries in eastern and central Europe that are currently receiving more from the European budget than they are paying into, advocate an even bigger budget than the Commission had proposed.

The European Parliament is asking that the budget should be 1.3% of GNI. On the other hand, wealthier member states headed by Germany want the budget to be limited to 1% of GNI.

Croatia has said that the Commission's proposal is acceptable to it.

"The amount the European Commission has proposed is acceptable to Croatia on the condition that sufficient funds are provided in that budget for all those priorities and for what Croatia considers should be incorporated into the budget," Metelko-Zgombić said.

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

ZAGREB, September 11, 2019 - Council of the EU Secretary-General Jeppe Tranholm-Mikkelsen said on Wednesday he strongly believed in the success of Croatia's chairmanship of the Council in the first half of 2020.

He was in Zagreb for talks with the country's leadership about preparations for Croatia's EU presidency.

This was an opportunity for me to explain what our cooperation will look like during the presidency and to find out the priorities of Croatia's presidency, he told reporters after talks in the government, including with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Tranholm-Mikkelsen also congratulated Dubravka Šuica on her nomination as the European Commission's vice president for democracy and demography.

I think it's an expression of the European Union's confidence in your candidates and Croatia as an EU member state, he said.

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

ZAGREB, September 11, 2019 - Croatia's candidate for a commissioner in the new European Commission, Dubravka Šuica, who was proposed by EC President-elect Ursula von der Leyen to be the Commission's Vice President for Democracy and Demography, said on Tuesday that this nomination was great recognition of the Croatian politics.

Von der Leyen earlier in the day unveiled her team and after that the future Croatian commissioner tweeted that she was honoured to take part in the first gender-balanced European Commission.

"It is a great honour for me that we (Croatia) are given a post of the Vice President. Croatia is the youngest EU member and this is great acknowledgement for the work of our politics and our Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who was one of the main negotiators and had a definitely a say in the process of giving us this portfolio," Šuica said in her address to Croatian reporters in Brussels.

The EC president also decided to appoint Šuica as the head of a team responsible for organising a two-year conference on the future of Europe which should present what sort of European Union its citizens desire.

This includes discussions with citizens and dialogue which we have not had to date. It is necessary to listen to EU citizens who feel sometimes to be distanced from the European Union. I am supposed to be most visible in these efforts in central and east Europe, where democratic values are shaken sometime, Šuica said.

As for the sector of demography, Šuica said that many countries in the Union were faced with a population decline.

We are going to delve into this problem, and we are going to deal with brain drain and reasons why young people are leaving their countries, Šuica said adding that she would try to solve this issue horizontally.

The EC President-elect sent letters to each of 27 members of her team, and in her letter to the Croatian candidate, von der Leyen underscores that she expects palpable results regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Šuica is supposed to prepare a report on the impact of demographic changes on different groups in societies in the first six months of her term, and identify models for dealing with those issues.

The Croatian Commissioner will coordinate work on a long-term vision for rural areas and is also supposed to coordinate activities aimed at preparing overall strategy on the rights of children.

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

ZAGREB, September 10, 2019 - European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday said that Vice-president-designate for Democracy and Demography, Croatian Dubravka Šuica, would be responsible for organising a conference on the future of Europe which should present what sort of European Union its citizens desire.

The conference will start in 2020 and will continue for two years. It has been designed to be a forum to connect European citizens, civil society organisations and European institutions with the aim of encouraging Europeans to say what sort of Union they want and how to manage it.

Šuica who has been an MEP, was nominated on Tuesday for the position of vice-president for democracy and demography.

She will be responsible on behalf of the EC for the Conference on the Future of Europe. That is a huge, vital process for our democracy. She will work closely with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU. It is very important to implement that programme in the next two and a half years, von der Leyen said.

Referring to Šuica's portfolio von der Leyen said that this is a fantastic area that includes topics such as searching for balance between work and family life and an ageing labour force.

A lot can be done here, von der Leyen said noting that there are cities and regions that have successfully shown that the trend can be turned around to stop the population decrease.

"We want to bring new impetus to Europe's democracy. This is our joint responsibility. Democracy is more than voting in elections every 5 years. It is about having your voice heard and being able to participate in the way society is built," the EC president added.

One of the EC's five new vice-presidents, Šuica has been elected to the European Parliament three times. She was a vice-president of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, and of the EP delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. In June this year she became a vice-president of the European People's Party (EPP).

More news about Dubravka Šuica can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 10, 2019 - The Croatian candidate for a European commissioner, Dubravka Šuica, has been nominated Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, European Commission President-Elect Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday.

Šuica (62) served three terms as a member of the Croatian Parliament from 2001 to 2011. Since 2004 she has been elected Vice-President of the Council of Europe's Congress of Local and Regional Authorities for five times in a row.

In October 2012 Šuica was elected vice-president of the association of women of the European People's Party (EPP). In April 2013 she was elected a member of the European Parliament and was re-elected in May 2014 and May 2019. She served as Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Delegation for Relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and with Kosovo. In June this year she became Vice-Chair of the EPP group, the largest political grouping in the European Parliament.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the nomination of Dubravka Šuica for the European Commission's Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, which he described as a very important portfolio, is recognition of Croatia's strength in the EU.

Addressing a press conference in Government House after the announcement, Plenković said that this is an exceptionally significant department in the Commission. "It will deal with existential topics for a series of member states," said Plenković.

He underscored that this was confirmation of Croatia's strength and is the result of the talks with EC President Ursula von der Leyen.

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

ZAGREB, September 9, 2019 - Germany and Croatia will work together on preparing to chair the European Council next year and that chairmanship is a great chance for Croatia, it was said following a meeting on Monday in Berlin between Germany's and Croatia's foreign ministers, Heiko Maas and Gordan Grlić Radman respectively.

The most important task that awaits us is chairing the European Council next year. That is a great challenge but also a great chance for Croatia, Maas said after the meeting.

Croatia's chairmanship will be in the first six months and Germany will preside in the following six months next year.

Maas underlined that joint preparations to chair the European Council require a high level of coordination between Germany and Croatia, not just bilaterally but on the European plane too.

Croatia's chairmanship in the first half of next year comes at an exceptionally important period. Early November the new European Commission will begin working. Then there is Brexit which will certainly be a topic next year too. And there is an agreement on the European Union's long-term financial framework, Maas said, announcing that in order to assist with operational preparations and coordination of chairmanship, a German foreign ministry official would be deployed in Zagreb in the first half of next year.

Grlić Radman underlined that Croatia's priorities during its chairmanship of the European Council will be sustainable development of countries and regions, with special focus on demographic revival, infrastructure connectivity and citizens' security, with focus on protecting the European Union's external borders.

The two ministers discussed Croatia's strategic foreign policy objectives, one of the most important being its accession to the Schengen Area, and Croatia enjoys Germany's full support in this aspiration.

Maas reiterated Germany's stance regarding the protection of the EU's external borders and that Berlin advocates that more funds should be allocated for it.

We want to better support countries on the EU's external borders than has been the case until now, he said.

Maas underlined that EU enlargement is one of the challenges during chairmanship of the European Council next year.

That will be a very important issue for Croatia as a sort of bypass to the Western Balkans, he added.

Grlić Radman underscored the importance of EU enlargement to Western Balkan countries.

The Western Balkans is our immediate neighbourhood and we are interested in peace and stability in this region, Grlić Radman said and announced a summit on the Western Balkans that will be held during Croatia's chairmanship of the European Council.

Grlić Radman emphasised that Croatia supports opening accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia in October this year and underlined the need to continue talks on European prospects of other countries in the region as well, particularly Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We want equality for all the constituent peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina so that it can be a functioning state with a European prospect, said Grlić Radman.

Maas said the fact that Grlić Radman had until recently been Croatia's Ambassador to Germany is very useful, particularly with regard to developing bilateral relations.

Maas and Grlić Radman also discussed an action plan to develop bilateral relations that was signed in March this year.

We have taken significant steps in a lot of areas in that regard, said Maas.

Grlić Radman said he expected the action plan to additionally strengthen relations between Germany and Croatia as well as provide a broader dimension to the partnership between the two countries within the European Union.

He noted the importance of economic relations and expressed hope that these relations will improve even more.

We particularly underline the automobile, IT, food and wood manufacturing industries as having potential for further cooperation, Grlić Radman said and announced that Germany's Minister of for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Almaier would visit Croatia next month.

Later today Grlić Radman is expected to meet with Norbert Roettgen, the chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the German Bundestag, and with the chairman of the Committee on European Union Affairs, Gunther Kirchbaum.

More news about relations between Croatia and Germany can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 4, 2019 - Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in Zagreb on Wednesday that presiding over the European Union was a demanding and responsible job which Croatia will be able to do well.

Croatia assumes the six-month rotating presidency over the Union on 1 January 2020.

Blok said he was glad that he had come to Zagreb in this important period ahead of Croatia's first presidency of the EU. The Netherlands presided over the EU in the first half of 2016.

We are aware of how demanding and responsible this is and we wish our Croatian colleagues a productive chairmanship and we are looking forward to our cooperation, Blok said after his talks with Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman.

The Croatian minister told a news conference that the Dutch minister was interested in what Croatia would put an emphasis on in the first half of 2020.

According to Grlić Radman, Blok appreciates Croatia's plans to work on strengthening economic and infrastructure connectivity among EU member states and on reinforcing the EU's external and internal security.

The two ministers agree that the bilateral relations are very good and friendly, being developed through dialogue.

The Netherlands is a significant trading partner. It is the second biggest foreign investor in Croatia. There are always possibilities for us to additionally strengthen economic cooperation, investments, particularly investments in the maritime sector, urban planning and sustainable development as well as innovations and transport, the Croatian minister said.

He added that the government systematically worked on boosting the country's business climate and that the Dutch business community was invited to invest in Croatia.

Every year a half million Dutch citizens visit Croatia.

Grlić Radman asked his Dutch counterpart for support for Croatia's efforts to join the passport-free Schengen area.

Blok believes that Croatia has accomplished its tasks regarding its Schengen membership bid.

However, we are in the middle of the process in which the European Commission is expected to make public its assessment, and let us wait, said the Dutch official, who will be received by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković later in the day.

More news about relations between Croatia and the Netherlands can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, September 4, 2019 - Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman spoke in Bled, Slovenia on Tuesday about Croatia's preparations for chairing the EU in the first half of 2020, saying Zagreb would push for the European path of Western Balkan countries.

Addressing a Bled Strategic Forum panel on the challenges facing the new European Commission, he also said Croatia strongly advocated opening EU entry talks with North Macedonia and Albania.

Taking over the EU presidency is a big challenge for Croatia, which went from suffering in the war and the military aggression to later development which prove that it can deal with different challenges and tasks, said Grlić Radman.

The EU too is faced with many external and internal challenges such as climate change, migration, cyber-attacks, terrorism, migration and fake news, he said, adding that the EU's position was increasingly complex and that Europe must prepare for and adapt to the challenges.

Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta told the panel the main priorities the EU must address in the next five years were environmental protection and climate change. They are areas in which global leadership can be shown in relation to other global stakeholders, he said, otherwise the world could soon develop into a twofold China-US system.

As for migration, Letta said a change of discourse was necessary. Since the issue cannot be resolved under the Treaty of Lisbon and the Dublin Regulation, a solution should be sought outside the agreements, adopting concrete tools and measures to approach the problem, he added.

Former Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel said the current EU had organisational problems and that one should therefore consider an all-European debate.

Rupel said he saw three different wings in the current EU - one comprising central and northern European states led by Germany, a second one comprising western countries with France at the helm, and a third one comprising eastern, ex-socialist countries.

He said this was a serious matter which showed the differences within the EU, with the eastern wing countries highly critical of Russia and western countries of the current US.

Former Slovenian PM Alojz Peterle underlined the issue of European identity, which he sees in common values.

Several participants in the panel underlined the need to prepare mechanisms in case of a new economic crisis and a euro area crisis.

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

ZAGREB, September 2, 2019 - Croatian Defence Minister Damir Krstičević met with the Chief Executive of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Jorge Domecq, in Zagreb on Monday, their talks focusing on the priorities of the Croatian presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020, the Defence Ministry said in a press release.

Domecq arrived for an official visit, following an informal meeting of EU defence ministers and ahead of Croatia's six-month rotating EU presidency, at Krstičević’s invitation.

During the meeting, Krstičević said that the EU presidency was both a great responsibility and a great opportunity for Croatia.

"In the area of defence, the focus of the Croatian presidency will be on the implementation of defence initiatives such as PESCO (Permanent Structured Cooperation) and CARD (the Coordinated Annual Review on Defence) and on military mobility, with emphasis on their coherence and complementarity, as well as on the industrial dimension of defence (the European Defence Fund), on strengthening EU-NATO cooperation and further EU efforts in south-eastern Europe," the defence minister said.

A defence industry conference to be held in Croatia in 2020

Krstičević went on to say that a defence industry conference would be held in Croatia as part of its EU presidency.

He expressed his satisfaction with the EDA chief executive's visit, citing excellent cooperation and support from EDA as part of the implementation of PESCO projects, CARD and the national plan for the implementation of PESCO. He recalled that Croatia was actively participating in six PESCO projects.

"The existing cooperation framework provides a good foundation for us to implement our ambitions, but additional efforts should be made to ensure the coherence and complementarity of initiatives and the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders," the defence minister said.

Krstičević noted that the next multi-annual financial framework would see a major step forward in financial allocations for the development of defence capabilities and research within the European Defence Fund.

Speaking of the Croatian defence industry, he said that it was internationally recognised for its specialised and state-of-the-art products, noting that Croatian troops were fully equipped with Croatian-made equipment and weapons.

He said that it was very important to make sure that small and medium-sized businesses had access to funding, adding that this was the only way to ensure even distribution of funds and development of the defence industry and research community.

Krstičević thanked EDA for supporting Croatian companies in applying for EU tenders, which resulted in the allocation of funding to the Utilis company for the Cyber Conflict Simulator project in 2017.

"This is the first primarily defence project co-financed from the European structural and investment funds (ESIF), which is a milestone in EDA's long-term efforts to open the possibility of EU funding for defence research projects," the minister said.

Speaking of Croatia's participation in EDA programmes, Krstičević said that the procedure had been initiated for Croatia to join the MARSUR programme, which allows interested countries to further develop the network of information exchanges in the fight against drug trafficking, smuggling, illegal migration and international terrorism.

Krstičević thanked Domecq for helping establish cooperation regarding the Croatian presidency of the EU and for support in organising planned activities relating to the defence industry.

Croatia's EU presidency an opportunity to incorporate EU defence initiatives into national defence plans

Domecq said that EDA was deeply committed to providing support to its member states regardless of their size.

The present and forthcoming presidency is an opportunity for further progress in incorporating EU defence initiatives into national defence plans and programmes and for improving cooperation to ensure an effective and interoperable European defence, the EDA chief executive said.

He confirmed EDA's interest in organising a high-level defence industry conference in the first half of 2020.

During his visit, Domecq is due to hold a lecture at the Croatian Chamber of Commerce for representatives of the defence industry and research community about the work of EDA and the European Commission and about opportunities which new EU defence initiatives provide to small and medium-sized enterprises and the research community, the Defence Ministry said.

EDA was established in 2004 with a view to supporting the Council of the EU and member states in their efforts to improve the EU's defence capabilities. Croatia became a member of EDA on 1 July 2013 when it joined the EU.

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