ZAGREB, July 28, 2019 - The European Commission Representation in Croatia is organising a film night on July 28 on the summer stage of Zagreb's Tuškanac cinema with free popcorn and screenings of shorts from the #EUandME campaign as well as the US feature "Bookshop" by Isabel Coixet.

The short films from the #EUandME campaign focus on the everyday advantages of life in the EU. They were made by prominent European directors, including "Debut" by Dalibor Matanić of Croatia, "The Loner" by Tomasz Konecki of Poland and "Party Animal" by Yorgos Zois of Greece.

As part of the event, visitors will have the opportunity to learn about their rights in various areas of life in the EU which, organisers say, provides citizens with many opportunities to do what they love by helping them through EU initiatives.

The Commission launched the #EUandME campaign to inform people aged 17 to 35 about the values and benefits of the EU and its citizens' rights as well as about how they can be helped in realising their passions and ambitions.

The campaign focuses on mobility, digital technology, skills and business, sustainability, and rights.

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

ZAGREB, July 27, 2019 - Croatia has received as yet unofficial information from the European Commission that it has met all technical requirements for accession to the Schengen area, Večernji List newspaper said on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.

Zagreb has received signals from the European Commission that the evaluation of the last of the eight chapters of the Schengen acquis will pass well, the newspaper said.

An official confirmation of Croatia's readiness is expected most likely in the second half of September, after the Commission's summer recess. In order for Croatia to actually join the passport-free travel area, the decision needs to be approved by the Council of the EU, that is all the member states.

Membership of the Schengen area is one of Croatia's foreign policy priorities. Prime Minister Plenković has set his government a target for Croatia to join the area by 2020, when the country assumes the rotating six-month presidency of the EU.

Večernji List noted that the path to Schengen membership may not be easy despite the green light from the Commission, as shown by the cases of Romania and Bulgaria which have met the criteria but are still kept out for political reasons. Croatia could face obstacles from Slovenia, which has hinted on several occasions that it may make its consent conditional on Croatia's acceptance and implementation of the border arbitration ruling.

The newspaper said that Schengen would also be one of the topics discussed by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her visit to Zagreb on Tuesday.

More Schengen news can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 27, 2019 - Newly-appointed Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Friday that Croatia was ready for the presidency of the EU, estimating that the presidency would cost the state about €70 million.

In his first press conference since stepping into office and succeeding Marija Pejčinović Burić, who has been elected as the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, Grlić Radman said that the ministry and media needed to be partners and underscored that he would be more open to the media.

"The public has the right to information and we wish to truly work transparently," he said.

Stating that the presidency of the Council of the EU is the ministry's "main priority", Grlić Radman said that Croatia was prepared for that role in the first half of 2020.

He said that based on previous presidencies by countries similar to Croatia in terms of economic strength, the presidency would cost Croatia around 70 million euro, adding that it was difficult to be more precise because some public procurement procedures were underway and some departments had requested additional co-funding from the EU.

He expects that when "Zagreb becomes the EU's capital" that will bring some profit to Croatia.

Grlić Radman said that the first priority was to ensure a timely agreement on the new multi-annual financial framework for 2021-2027.

The focus will also be on Brexit and economic objectives such as balancing economic growth, improving competitiveness and deepening the economic and monetary union.

The other priorities include demographic challenges and Europe's external and internal security, with Grlić Radman noting that "Europe is very grateful" to Croatia for stopping migrant waves.

During its chairmanship Croatia will advocate the better functioning of the Schengen Area and Eurozone, with emphasis on enlargement which includes Croatia. Zagreb will advocate the further enlargement of the Union and we will organise a summit on that topic in 2020.

"Anyone who wishes to join this club is welcome but based on merit," Grlić Radman said, reiterating that Croatia strongly supported the European integration of countries in Southeast Europe and cooperation with countries in the Eastern Partnership.

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

ZAGREB, July 25, 2019 - The new European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will visit Croatia, "the newest and strongly pro-European member state", on Tuesday, her spokesman Jens Flosdorff told Hina on Thursday.

He said that the Commission president was looking forward to cooperating with Croatia, which assumes the rotating six-month presidency of the EU in the first half of 2020.

Croatia is one of three countries which the newly-elected head of the EU executive has chosen to visit first. She visited Paris on Tuesday, she is scheduled to visit Warsaw on Thursday and is due in Zagreb next Tuesday.

It is expected that Von der Leyen and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković will discuss the priorities of the Croatian presidency, the EU's multiannual financial framework and Croatia's bid to enter the Schengen area and the eurozone.

During negotiations on the new Commission chief, Plenković was among those who insisted the most that the post belonged to the European People's Party, the relative winner of May's European Parliament elections.

Von der Leyen has asked the member states to submit their nominations for members of the European Commission by August 26. Sixteen of the 28 member states have done so to date, nominating only six women. The new Commission president wanted each member state to nominate two candidates, a woman and a man, but so far none has done this. Countries that nominate a woman have a greater chance of getting a department that they want.

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

ZAGREB, July 18, 2019 - Bosnia and Herzegovina's natural gas supplier BH Gas said on Thursday it had received permission from the European Union to launch a project that would connect the country's gas grid to that of Croatia.

The Directorate-General for European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations on Wednesday approved the preparation of a project to build the South Interconnection BH-Croatia, the company said.

The new natural gas pipeline would run from Zagvozd in southern Croatia to Posušje and on to central Bosnia and Mostar. BH Gas said it hoped the new supply route, which would be independent of Russia, would be operational by 2023.

The main financier of the project is the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which will provide a favourable loan arrangement.

The EU will for now support the project with 1 million euro in grants. The job of preparation of initial documentation has been awarded to the Mott MacDonald consortium through the CONNECTA project.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is currently completely dependent on Russian gas, which is supplied via Hungary and Serbia. The new pipeline via Zagvozd should ensure it access to the EU market and the future LNG terminal on the northern Croatian Adriatic island of Krk.

Croatia is expected to build a 60-kilometre long pipeline from Split to Zagvozd as part of the project, whereas the whole route from Zagvozd to Travnik is 114 kilometres with an additional 46 kilometres of a branch pipeline to Mostar.

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

ZAGREB, July 17, 2019 - The Forum 2020, an informal civil society platform, on Wednesday outlined its four priorities during Croatia's chairmanship of the European Union in the first half of 2020 - a law-based Europe, a Europe of sustainable development, a Europe as a peace-building model, and a Europe with the potential for enlargement.

Forum 2020 is an informal platform of civil society organisations that have gathered in relation to Croatia's chairmanship of the EU at the start of next year. It comprises more than 20 NGOs and is coordinated by the CROSOL platform, the organisation informed on Wednesday.

The first priority is a democratic Europe of free and responsible people founded on the rule of law and human rights. Forum 2020 advocates a Europe of free, independent and critical NGOs, independent institutions and media.

The second topical priority is a EU that still has the potential for enlargement and one that will stabilise the Western Balkans.

The third is about Europe that is committed to the goals of sustainable development within and beyond its borders and the final priority is the European Union as a global peacebuilder.

All these priorities have been elaborated in detail with concrete demands relating to public policy and have been released on CROSOL's web site and sent to the Croatian government and foreign ministry.

Members of Forum 2020 include the Centre for Peace Studies, the Network of Croatian Youth, Gong, BaBe, Documenta and the House of Human Rights.

Croatia will take over the chair of the Council of the European Union from Finland on 1 January 2020.

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

ZAGREB, July 11, 2019 - The Croatian government on Thursday dismissed allegations from the interpellation submitted by the Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) and Democrats parliamentary group over the government's failure to extend a moratorium on the sale of farmland to aliens.

The government states that it will submit the request in a timely manner to the European Commission for an extension of an additional three years to the 7-year moratorium on the sale of farmland to aliens.

The deadline for submitting the request expires on 1 July 2020, seven years after Croatia's admission to the EU.

Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolušić said today that the request would be most probably sent to Brussels this September.

Tolušić said that for that purpose, the government had already held talks with officials of the Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union to discuss technical aspects of the lodging of the application.

He also informed the government about long-term leases of state-owned farmland in local municipalities and towns.

By this move, we have practically enabled several generations of Croatian farmers to use state-owned agricultural land, he said adding that the government enabled the sale of that land to local farmers.

More agriculture news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, July 6, 2019 - During its chairmanship of the Council of the EU, Croatia will endeavour to reconcile the frustration of southeast European countries with the slow pace of integration processes and the great reservation of some member-states toward EU enlargement, and it will realistically assess what calendar of future events can be expected in the next decade, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Poznan on Friday.

"Southeast European countries have great ambitions but they all share the frustration with the slowness of the process. At the same time, some EU countries, and Croatia is not one of them, have deep reservations and advocate a much more gradual process," Plenković said after a summit meeting of the Berlin Process, an initiative designed to help maintain efforts on the integration of EU aspirants in southeast Europe amid enlargement fatigue.

"We have the political and leadership role to try to reconcile those two feelings that currently exist and to establish, in a realistic and sober way, what can be expected for our neighbours in the next decade," he added.

Plenković underscored that during its presidency of the Council of the EU, Croatia would organise an EU - Southeast Europe summit in May next year, which would be "an opportunity to realistically assess what can be done with regard to the pace of each of those countries in terms of their drawing closer to the EU in the next ten years, in the context of the new EU institutions, the new budget framework and the changed atmosphere and mood toward enlargement in some big EU member states."

He announced that Croatia would prepare very carefully for that summit and that he would visit all the countries in southeast neighbourhood and talk with key EU partners.

"I want the summit in Zagreb, to be held 20 years after the first summit of that nature, to be a reference summit and to be concrete so that European prospects do not end up being just a euphemism," said Plenković.

He believes that the Berlin Process, launched in 2014, is a worthwhile move designed to fill the void that occurred in the process of integration of southeast European countries with the EU and that should not have occurred.

Twenty years ago, in November 2000, at the first summit of EU leaders held outside the EU, in Zagreb, a dialogue was established with southeast European countries in an effort to integrate them as soon as possible. Three years later, in June 2003, the second EU-Western Balkans summit was held, and after that a full 15 years had to pass before the next such summit, which was held in Sofia in 2018.

The hope of faster integration of those countries with the EU was extinguished at the Sofia summit by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said that there would be no new enlargement until the EU was reformed internally so that it could be more efficient. He reiterated that just a few days ago.

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

ZAGREB, July 5, 2019 - Ursula von der Leyen has the full support of the European People's Party (EPP) to become European Commission President, but she has not yet secured votes from other parliamentary groups, Croatian members of the European Parliament said in Zagreb on Friday.

Dubravka Šuica, a member of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and deputy chair of the EPP group in the European Parliament, said she regretted that the concept of spitzenkandidat had failed, adding that the EPP did not want to "block the processes" agreed in Brussels and would support the Commission President nominee.

Tomislav Sokol (HDZ/EPP) said: "As far as the EPP is concerned, there will be no problem about the confirmation of Ursula von der Leyen."

After lengthy negotiations, the European Council on Tuesday nominated German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU/EPP) as the next President of the European Commission, after the lead candidates Manfred Weber of the EPP and Frans Timmermans of the Social Democrats were rejected.

"The point is that the strongest party has the right to nominate its candidate for the highest position. With the new candidate democratic legitimacy was preserved because the EPP is a relative winner" of May's European Parliament elections, Sokol said at a press conference held to introduce the newly-elected Croatian MEPs.

Attending were Dubravka Šuica, Karlo Ressler, Tomislav Sokol and Željana Zovko of the HDZ, Biljana Borzan and Tonino Picula of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and Valter Flego of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS).

Ruza Tomašić of the Croatian Sovereignists, Predrag Fred Matic of the SDP, Independent Mislav Kolakušić and Živi Zid's Ivan Vilibor Sinčić did not attend. Tomašić and Matić excused themselves, while Kolakušić and Sinčić gave no explanation.

Zovko said she is "very pleased with the choice of Von der Leyen" because she is advocating the EU's southeastern expansion, unlike Timmermans who is opposed to further enlargement. "We have the best possible solution," she said.

Borzan, a deputy chair of the Socialists group, said that their support for the EPP's candidate has not been agreed yet, even though Italian Socialist David Sassoli has become President of the European Parliament.

"Von der Leyen is facing a difficult task of winning a majority," Picula said, adding that those who did not honour the concept of spitzenkandidat contributed to a degradation of the European institutions.

Flego said that Von der Leyen would first have to present her platform to his Renew Europe group, formerly known as the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), as Sassoli had done, after which this group would decide on whether or not they would support her.

"It is less important who is at the European Commisson's helm and who the commissioners are, but it is very important that we know what these people will do," Flego said.

More news about the European Parliament can be found in the Politics section.

ZAGREB, July 5, 2019 - Serbia is looking forward to Croatia's presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020 and expects a lot from it, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić said at the Western Balkans summit in the Polish city of Poznan on Thursday.

"Serbia is looking forward to and expects a lot from Croatia's presidency of the EU. We are all family here and it is in our interest to help one another. That is why I think Croatia's presidency should be in accordance with the interests of the entire region," Dačić was quoted by Serbian media as saying at the summit, organised as part of the Berlin Process.

Dačić "congratulated Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Marija Pejčinović Burić on being elected Secretary General of the Council of Europe," saying that this position is "very important for the region."

Dačić said that Serbia believes that all countries in the region are friends, that they have similar problems and none of them should gloat over the failures of another, suggesting that the countries in the region should mutually support each other.

"Some people will say that is a new Yugoslavia, but I am not talking about that. I am saying that we have common interests and that it would be better for to discuss them publicly rather than think the same in various waiting rooms without daring to say so," Dačić said.

He said that conflicts were not in Serbia's interest and emphasised the need for peace in the region.

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