ZAGREB, Dec 19, 2020 - Croatian diplomats have mixed feelings about 2020, which began with the ambitious EU presidency becoming virtual due to the pandemic, but by the end conditions had been met for waiving U.S. visas, the two most important foreign ministers visited, and an exclusive economic zone was declared in the Adriatic.

Croatia spent a large part of 2019 preparing for taking over the rotating six-month EU presidency six and a half years after joining and at the start of the Ursula von der Leyen-led European Commission.

The presidency began dynamically, with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic going to Paris for consultations with French President Emmanuel Macron. Two days later, the new European Council President, Charles Michel, arrived in Zagreb, followed by the entire Commission for a meeting in the refurbished National University Library.

At the beginning of the year, the EU's agenda included negotiations on the next seven-year budget and an agreement on future relations with the UK. Croatia had announced that during its presidency it wanted to restore the focus on the European perspective of the Western Balkans, the culmination of which would be the Zagreb Summit, an informal meeting of the EU and the membership candidates.

A total of 161 events were to have taken place in Croatia, two thirds of them in Zagreb, but only a few were eventually held before the European lockdown.

Croatia's motto for its EU presidency was "A Strong Europe in a World of Challenges", which turned out to be prophetic as in January news started arriving from China about a new pneumonia, a virus that would soon infect the whole world.

The focus of the EU and its Croatian presidency soon shifted to the fight against the novel coronavirus, which arrived in Europe in February.

Croatia's political leadership said later that the presidency did not go as planned but that everything that could be, was accomplished in those circumstances.

EU enlargement

Croatia achieved one of the priorities of its presidency in March, when EU accession negotiations were opened with North Macedonia and Albania after a compromise was reached with the countries which had objected to it.

The Zagreb Summit, taking place 20 years after the first one which opened Croatia's European perspective, was held via video link due to the pandemic.

EU member states confirmed in the Zagreb Declaration their clear support for the European perspective of Western Balkan states, but some politicians were disappointed after the summit because the final statement made no mention of EU enlargement.

"I would be happier if we were stronger and clearer, all of us," Plenkovic said then.

The Croatian EU presidency was also marked by a magnitude 5.5 earthquake which struck Zagreb in March, but it ended with another success, the opening of the last chapter in the accession negotiations with Montenegro.

A month later, Croatia entered the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, a key step towards entering the euro area.

Exclusive economic zone

At the end of the year, Croatia decided to declare an exclusive economic zone in the Adriatic, 17 years after declaring the compromised-baed Ecological and Fisheries Protection Zone.

During a visit by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, his Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlic Radman said the two countries would declare their exclusive economic zones together.

Pompeo and Lavrov

After several years, Croatia was visited by the U.S. and Russian foreign ministers.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed in Dubrovnik in October that Croats would soon be able to travel to the U.S. without visas. He also said that a decision on the purchase of fighter jets was Croatia's sovereign decision and, lobbying against Huawei, called on Zagreb not to give strategic projects to the Chinese.

Several weeks later, U.S. Ambassador Robert Kohorst said that officially less than 3% of Croatia's visa applications were rejected, a key requirement for visa-free travel.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in Zagreb after two postponed visits. He said that Russia had good relations with Croatia despite the EU's unwillingness to have good relations with Russia.

New president

This year Croatia also has a new president. Zoran Milanovic defeated then president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in a runoff, taking office in mid-February and becoming co-creator of the foreign policy.

"The wars are over", he said at a modest inauguration which, for the first time, did not take place in St. Mark's Square. Milanovic announced that he would cooperate with everyone on the foreign policy front.

He chose Slovenia for his first official visit and has also visited Austria, Montenegro and Germany. He also made a private visit to Albania over which he quarreled with the prime minister.

Croatia's presidency of the EU which was marked by the coronavirus pandemic and economic woes might be over now, but a multilingual communication tool that the country helped to build is far from history.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes on the 15th of October, 2020, back in June, the CEF project "Translator for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU)" was completed, within which the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb, in partnership with the Romanian Academy, the Office of the Finnish Prime Minister and the Latvian technology company Tilde, developed a multilingual communication tool.

It is an artificial intelligence (AI) translation platform that translates text, documents and websites into the 24 official European Union languages ​​and has enabled all participants to overcome language barriers during the 2019 and 2020 presidencies of the Council in Romania, Croatia and Finland.

The multilingal communication tool, more specifically the platform, quickly became a starting point for translation used by Presidency Secretariat staff, representatives of various European Union bodies, translators, journalists and visitors who together translated over 79 million words into an incredible 6.5 million sentences.

In the Republic of the Croatia, the further development of this tool could be ensured through the European Union project of the Central Office for the Development of the Digital Society and the research team headed by Marko Tadic from the Faculty of Philosophy in Zagreb.

"Through this project, the Croatian national portal of language technologies would be developed, which will be available not only to the public administration, but also to the education, business and other sectors," Tadic concluded when discussing the success of this innovative multilingual communication tool which Croatia had a key role in building.

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ZAGREB, July 1, 2020 - During its presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2020, Croatia has shown leadership and secured the best possible results under the conditions unprecedented in history, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic says in an interview for Hina.

Croatia took over the EU presidency only six and a half years after it was admitted to the bloc, however, the chairmanship could not unfold as planned, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which had affected the usual functioning of EU institutions and the everyday life of the Europeans.

PM Plenkovic underscored that before it took the helm of the EU on 1 January, Croatia had worked in a committed manner on preparations for this duty, and the slogan of the Croatian presidency was "A strong Europe in a world of challenges".

However, no one could have foreseen so many challenges we have been facing in recent times, including the COVID pandemic, the premier said explaining that therefore the focus was shifted from the Croatian presidency agenda's priorities to the top priority: the safety and security of European citizens.

Furthermore, Zagreb was hit by a 5.5-strong earthquake on 22 March, he recalled adding that the most experienced and oldest EU member-states cannot remember that anybody's presidency had been conducted under such complex circumstances.

"Therefore commendations and recognition we are receiving from older members for a job well done are more than a matter of courtesy, they mean their sincere appreciation of our huge efforts we have invested and results we have achieved."

"Despite the unprecedented circumstances, we have achieved many goals we had set, and Croatia enjoys the status and reputation it never had before," Plenkovic said.

In mid-March, virtual meetings and video conferences started replacing physical meetings at the political level.

In these circumstances, our task was to coordinate a joint response to the crisis caused by COVID-19, Plenkovic said.

We can say that in a record short time the European Union managed to accomplish a lot of things. We can say that in many ways we have been a "digitised presidency". The first digital trialogue was held during the Croatian presidency and referred to the SMART-TEN-T topic, he added.

Until 13 March 2020, in Croatia 21 events and gatherings were held, bringing together experts and working groups, two events were within a parliamentary dimension plus 32 events under the auspices of the Croatian presidency. From March to the end of June, more than 70 video conferences were held, including discussions on the impact of the pandemic on the economy, public healthcare systems, borders, education, culture, employment, and mobility, he said.

The Council of the EU needed to act under extraordinary circumstances. Only COREPER continued to meet in a physical format, and I thank them for that, the Croatian premier said.

He commented on the full activation of integrated political crisis response (IPCR) arrangements during the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU to help the EU members to address the COVID-19 outbreak.

Croatia's greatest achievement its ability to act and meet its targets in most difficult circumstances

Asked about Croatia's greatest achievement during its presidency of the Council of the EU, Plenkovic said that "our greatest achievement is the fact that we continued to act and achieve our targets in the most difficult circumstances."

At the start of our presidency, we defined the Zagreb Summit and progress in the enlargement policy, preparations for launching the Conference on the Future of Europe, and orderly Brexit as our goals. In all three areas, we have met the targets he has set: thanks to the strong engagement and initiative from Croatia, the Council of the EU made a decision on opening the membership talks with North Macedonia and Albania, despite strong opposition from some of the EU member states. Also, a new methodology for the accession negotiations has been confirmed, he said.

After several months of intensive talks with member-states and advocacy for the strongest possible mandate of the Council, the Croatian EU Presidency has reached agreement on the Council's position for inter-institutional talks on a joint statement based on which the Conference on the Future of Europe should be launched by the end of this year, the Croatian government reported earlier on Wednesday.

ZAGREB, June 29, 2020 - Croatia's first EU presidency, which ends on Wednesday, did not go as planned due to the coronavirus but everything that was possible was achieved in such circumstances, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Monday at a meeting with the chiefs of foreign diplomatic offices.

"When we started, we wanted to send a message about a strong Europe in a world full of challenges. Nobody knew that one of the challenges would be COVID-19, which didn't change only the Croatian presidency but the world, Europe, Croatia, and many countries around the world," he said.

"We started following the situation in China on January 8 already, notably in Wuhan. That enabled us to respond to the crisis at the European level already on January 28," he said, adding that "a great job has been done in managing the crisis."

Plenkovic regretted that the novel coronavirus prevented the Croatian presidency from bringing the EU closer to citizens through various events, which is what other member states did during their presidency, saying those events were replaced by video conferences and conference calls.

He said the presidency started well with the arrival of European officials in Croatia and visits to several European capitals.

An orderly Brexit was ensured, a consensus was reached within the European Council on a mandate for future negotiations with the UK, and focus was put on the European perspective of the Western Balkan states, which was crowned with the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania and the Zagreb summit on enlargement, said Plenkovic.

A summit was also organised with the Eastern Partnership and an agreement was reached on the Conference on the Future of Europe, which "is needed more than ever," he added.

He said a new round of negotiations on the Multiannual Financial Framework was approaching, as well as on a European recovery plan. The EU must show through both instruments "that it stands by its member states and citizens and that it can act quickly and effectively," he added.

Plenkovic said Croatia had achieved progress in two issues not related to the presidency, drawing closer to euro and Schengen area membership.

He thanked the foreign diplomats for understanding the sudden challenges which befell Croatia during its EU presidency and for their solidarity after the Zagreb earthquake in March.

Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said the slogan of the Croatian presidency, Europe in a world full of challenges, could not have been more appropriate, and that the coronavirus had shown that multilateralism was needed more than ever and that international solidarity was fragile.

In that crisis Croatia has again proved to be a responsible and reliable partner, he said, thanking the foreign diplomats for their support.  "You were with us the whole time and we felt your support."

On July 1, the rotating EU presidency will be taken over by Germany.

ZAGREB, June 28, 2020 - The Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU ends in two days and over the past six months, it managed to ensure the regular functioning of that institution despite unprecedented circumstances.

January and February proceeded as planned but in March the novel coronavirus started spreading across Europe.

After lockdown measures were introduced all over Europe, more than 60 video conferences were held, including six virtual meetings by heads of state or government. All Council formations held virtual meetings, some a number of times.

In the new circumstances, the Croatian presidency had to change and adapt its programme.

We had to reconsider most plans and rearrange our priorities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the last video summit.

We had to quickly shift the focus from the priorities of our presidency to the most important priority, the safety of European citizens, he added.

At that summit, European Council President Charles Michel and Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Plenkovic on a successful presidency.

As soon as the pandemic broke out, the Croatian presidency started working on the coordination of a common response to the crisis. The integrated political crisis response was established very quickly and the Council reached an agreement in record time on the Commission's proposals to mitigate the effects of the crisis.

In cooperation with member states, the Croatian presidency participated in the repatriation of 650,000 EU citizens who, in the middle of the pandemic, were in third countries across the world 

Another precedent occurred during the Croatian presidency. For the first time, a member state left the EU. An agreement was reached on an orderly exit of the UK and guidelines were agreed on negotiations on future EU-UK relations, which are still underway. 

One of the biggest achievements of the Croatian presidency was the lifting of a blockade, imposed by France and a few other member states, on the opening of accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania.

Instead of an EU-Western Balkans summit that was to have taken place in Zagreb, meant to be the largest event during the Croatian presidency, a video summit was held on May 6, resulting in the adoption of the Zagreb Declaration, which reaffirmed the European perspective of Croatia's southeastern neighbours.

In June, a video summit was held with the six Eastern Partnership countries.

Last week, the Council agreed its position on launching the Conference on the Future of Europe. Also agreed were the Council's recommendations for opening the EU's external borders for third-country citizens. A decision to that effect is expected to be made on Monday or Tuesday.

June 30 will mark seven years of Croatia's EU membership. On July 1, the rotating Council of the EU presidency will be taken over by Germany.

August 11, 2019 - And why does 80% of the Croatian private sector have no expectations from the most important political mandate Croatia has taken on since entering the EU?

Croatia will assume the EU Presidency for the first half of 2020. We are delighted to welcome Aco Momcilovic to TCN who looks at some of the issues surrounding Croatia's preparations for this role in his first article for us. Aco is currently the President of MBA Croatia, the former head of HR for Rimac Automobili, who now runs his own HR firm, FutureHR.  Welcome, Aco. 

To answer this question above, we should firstly ask ourselves how familiar are we with the topic, and what kind of information is available or discussed in business circles. MBA Croatia did a survey to answer some of the basic questions connected to the upcoming Croatian Presidency of the Council of Europe. In general, professionals from only a few business associations are familiar with the Presidency – 75% of them state they know what it means. Still 25% don’t know what it means at all. An even higher number of people are aware that we will run the presidency in a few months – > 80%, although obviously some of them don’t understand what it is. Only 10% of responders are not even aware of that fact. So it seems that the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs did a good job there.

What could be the contribution of the EU Presidency to Croatian businesses specifically?

Since general awareness is relatively high, it is a bit concerning that despite that fact, more than 80% of businesspeople are completely unaware of any goals that Croatia as a country or our business society might have, or different agendas that could be raised for our benefit. The fact that 76% of decision-makers in the country’s private sector don’t have any idea how the Presidency could impact our business, in the short term or long term, is saying something about our level of knowledge about this potentially very important topic. Business at the highest level is quite internationalized and often managed on the country levels, and connected legislations that are put forward, and Croatian entrepreneurs are obviously not participating in that process. A very important detail is to understand that it is not possible in theory to directly advance national interests but to steer them through managing and reaching consensuses on the different legislations that could be our priority – the Presidency sets the agenda in the Council and can speed up or delay dossiers according to the national interest. If you want to sell anything in the single market you necessarily have to engage with EU law; your employees' health and safety at work are protected by EU law; decisions on trade policy with third countries are made by the European Commission and might directly affect your business' competitiveness and ability to export. Is it up to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or to somebody else to disseminate this information remains a question?

Do we have the right people to do it?

As a general rule, we don’t have confidence that our representatives and employees sent to this project (in Brussels or in Croatia) are competent enough to do that job successfully. Only 5% believe they have the required skills and proper education for the task. 15 % answer that they are not sure, and 80 % state that they think or at least assume that we are not prepared. This should concern the Croatian Government and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic since it may reflect on the perception of their competence.

That lack of trust is not a very comforting fact, considering that it seems that our government has spent 7 million Kn on the education of a few hundred people that will participate in EU Presidency from the Croatian side. Many experts claim that the amount was spent on basic information, and that it lacks the depth and finesse required to do diplomacy at the highest level. Of course, it is possible that some other, more complex education programs, will be organized in the remaining time by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, in cooperation with other experts from the public affairs and government relations companies (companies like Vlahovic Group that is member of FIPRA or the newly established Seeport) or diplomatic circles. That problem is not Croatia specific – it is recognized that many new (and especially small) members have a lack of experienced people working in administrative EU positions.

Strategically speaking, a country can achieve some individual goals depending on its tactics, but for that we have a deficiency if not in diplomatic knowledge then in administrative and lobbying experience. Only after the presidency we will be able to recognize if the right targets were set (if any), and if they were achieved. For example, Bulgaria used their opportunity to organize 200 political and cultural events to promote their country. Estonia was successful in pushing the digital market topic and digitalization policies. On the other hand, Malta was skilled in reaching political consensus in previously unresolved areas. Romanian intentions are clearly stated by their Victor Negresku: "Romania's priority is to show professionalism in the exercise of the Presidency of the Council of Europe, but also to take advantage of this moment to improve its image and strengthen its position at the European level.” It would exceed all our expectations if Croatia would be remembered for achieving anything of that level of importance.

It seems that current hot topics are in the area of human rights, so the post-election focus will be in protecting and renewing European values which will enable current Trio (Romania, Finland and Croatia) to make significant changes. As expected many stakeholders will promote their “policy papers” to try to advance their agenda. For example, representatives of civil society are actively participating in the process and doing quite a good job. Is there a business agenda created to protect or promote Croatian companies or at least estimation how will potential policy changes in different sectors/legislations (low carbon emission, Brexit or Digital Single Market, EU Budget 21-27 for example,) influence their financial results? A few round tables will be organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the remaining months, so maybe they could contribute to that cause. Almost equally important is the question - what the Croatian Chamber of Commerce is doing (if anything) to make the most of this opportunity on behalf of Croatian businesses? Are any business summits or investment fairs being organized? If not, why not?

We can all hope that this “graduation exam” as some are describing it, will demonstrate our competence and allow our deeper engagement in the political process. If we lose this chance to promote our political priorities and innovations, the opportunity cost will be significant, alliance building and collaboration with other countries will have to wait for better times. If anything, we have proved that media exposure of our country, for example through sports (World Football Championship), will not bring us many advantages if we don’t have proper tools and knowledge to use it.

Responsibility also lies with our business associations since their members, according to the conducted survey, don’t have enough information and interests about opportunities placed in front of them. It was a bit surprising to see that the only company doing some marketing connected to the EU Presidency and potential projects is Vlahovic Group  – a public affairs company.

The cost of this “project” is estimated to be around 70 million Euros, and it would be a shame not to get anything in return. So let’s hope that our government will do their best to prepare and educate their representatives, and also motivate them to achieve some clearly set goals. What business sector should care about is whether Croatia is planning to use the Presidency to deliver national objectives and goals, to raise its profile in the EU and international community and to promote the benefits of EU membership to the Croatian people? Or is its objective merely to get through the coming six months without anything going disastrously wrong? “

Fortunately, the results will be visible very soon, some of them already in the second part of 2020.

Aco Momcilovic LinkedIn

President of MBA Croatia 

Owner of FutureHR