Debate: Presentation of the programme of activities of the Croatian Presidency
Date: TUESDAY, 14 JANUARY 2020
Speaker: Andrej Plenković
Language: EN

First of all, I very much look forward to working in synergy with you, Ursula, and with your Commission. We said in Zagreb that your first months will be efficient as possible. We in the Council will help you to be propulsive and pass the proposed legislation as much as we can. In that respect, since migration was mentioned, we look forward to the new initiatives regarding the Dublin package. I think there is a lot of expectation that we will finally be able to create a balance between responsibility and solidarity, but in an upgraded and refurbished fashion. When it comes to Schengen and the euro, which you mentioned, this is clearly a little bit of a Croatian hat. I deliberately didn’t want to mention them at the beginning, but it’s true. My Government has two major objectives. One is to join the Schengen area – I thank the Juncker Commission for the green light when it comes to technical conditions and Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission for the forwarding of the proposal to the Council – and, after our Presidency, we will continue to push for that objective. On the strategy to adopt the euro, we are in the process of working and fulfilling the action plan for the Exchange Rate Mechanism too. We intend to complete this exercise – just – at the end of our Presidency and then a decision is at the Eurogroup level. When it comes to multilateralism and humanitarian aspects, as well as the social pillar, which were mentioned by Ms García Pérez, I think that, when you read the entire programme carefully – and it has been distributed to all of you – you will see a lot on social inclusion, equality and non—discrimination. This is an integrative part of our programme and, when it comes to migration and the protection of the Croatian border, let me be very clear on this. The migratory and refugee crisis of 2015 and 2016 has, without any doubt, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, been the most important phenomenon that has occurred and had political ramifications, not only on the political debate of the EU institutions, but also on the national debates and policies in all of our countries. Therefore, the solution to this issue is to strengthen the external border of the European Union. We should do this with a comprehensive set of tools – foreign policy, security, development, trade, state—building, humanitarian aid – in all the crisis areas around the world as much as we can, but we must also strengthen the external border, notably the one between Greece and Turkey. This is where the problem on the eastern Mediterranean and Western Balkans route arises.  Croatia will not allow itself to become a country that would be an informal hotspot. This is clear. We haven’t opted, unlike some other Member States, to erect barricades and fences, and to create barbed wire. On the contrary, we are protecting our border, with 6 500 police guarding the Croatian border, guarding the future Schengen border and guarding the European Union border. In that respect, we shall apply our law, European standards and international conventions. Any allegations that there were any misdemeanours will be investigated and sanctioned, but none of these allegations should be taken per se as a fact. This is what I’m telling you, as someone who has visited the area of the north—western border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia and fully understands the terrain and the conditions. On that, we need to cooperate, use the activities of Frontex and help each other in order to address the issue adequately. When it comes to the issue of enlargement, which was mentioned by Mr Bay, I will simply say one thing. There is no  Ms Tomašić, thank you for your suggestions. I really am grateful that you want success for Croatia. We will work with you to enable this. This will not be an exercise, as you said, almost in a protocol sense. We are working hard. We have been preparing hard. We are in the fourth year of our mandate. The people who are dealing with this have been dealing with it – unlike many other actors in my country today who dare to speak on Europe – every single hour of their working, political and professional life to understand Europe, to work for Croatian membership and to make our role in Europe relevant and successful, and this is how we approach it. Finally, on the funds that Mr Kolakušić mentioned, I will just make two points. The balance between traditional policy and modernisation is not a simple equation to be solved. Had this been such a simple exercise, we would probably already have seen an agreement in the previous composition of the Parliament. We all have a lot of responsibility. Positions are pretty distant, but we all need to concede a little bit in order for all of us to gain for our countries and our citizens. This will be the guiding prescient principle for these negotiations in the months to come. Thank you for this part of the intervention.