Roberta METSOLA, EP President meets with Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Prime Minister of Croatia. Later, MEPs discuss the state of the EU and its future prospects with Plenković. This is the fourth in a series of debates on the EU labelled “This is Europe”.

debate

plenary session

WEBER, Manfred (EPP, DE)

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

EU - Croatia (T)

PLENKOVIĆ, Andrej (EPP, HR)

BORZAN, Biljana (S&D, HR)

GROŠELJ, Klemen (Renew, SI)

president's agenda

This is Europe Debate (T)

This is Europe with Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Prime Minister of Croatia: arrival and extracts from the debate

Title: This is Europe with Andrej PLENKOVI&#262;, Prime Minister of Croatia: arrival and extracts from the debate 

Arrival of Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Prime Minister of Croatia, handshake, signature of the golden book and meeting with Roberta METSOLA, EP President (11 shots)

SOUNDBITE (English), Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, Croatia's European story is a success story. It gives hope. It shows results with a war on our continent, with the decisions that we must take this week, the importance of hope cannot be underestimated. But hope alone will only get us so far.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVI&#262;, Croatian Prime Minister, The brutal Russian invasion and aggression against Ukraine has literally annihilated the main principles of international law. main approach to the global governance, to the international relations that we were cultivating for decades.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister, I am pleased to see that the position of many member states is now being assembled. But the wording that will most likely the historic European Council tomorrow and on Friday actually grant Ukraine the candidate status. I think this is important. It's courageous and it is certainly deserved by a nation that is fighting for the European principles of freedom and of democracy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister, - We, of course, have been in favour of granting a candidate status also to Bosnia and Herzegovina very clearly because we feel that this country should not be the last wagon in the train of the Western Balkans towards the European Union. It would Be a historical unjustice.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister, - I think that the conference on the future of Europe, especially its conclusions with the suggestions and recommendations, are a very clear signal of the European peoples of European citizens from all of our member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister, - I was in particular pleased that there was a very, very clear signal that we should do more in terms of mixed shared competences when it comes to health cooperation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Andrej PLENKOVIĆ, Croatian Prime Minister, - Croatia will join the Eurozone on the 1st of January 2023, just as we planned. And just as we have carefully and diligently implemented our strategy for joining the euro. The programme for the conversion of the Croatian corner to Euro, the action plan that followed after our joini ng of the exchange rate mechanism to end the banking union on the 10th of July, 25 days after the second victory at the parliamentary elections that we had, and that we should fulfil this key political, first of all, but also economic and financial objective on time and as we planned. 

SOUNDBITE (English), Manfred WEBER (EPP, DE), Croatia is in a way a good proof for what we have to do today. You said it because now it's a similar situation to Ukraine and Moldova for those who now stand up and fight for our values, to give them a similar perspective that enlargement works, that we should be convinced about this model and this approach. And this is also true or the same towards the Western Balkans that we need now a clear timeline.

SOUNDBITE (Croatian), Biljana BORZAN (S&amp;D, HR), You, as the Prime Minister and your colleagues have a responsibility to protect our citizens. I keep repeating that, but maybe you can hear it better here in Brussels in the end. I want to say that joining the eurozone is good for the euro, however, is not a goal. It is just a means to enable people to live better. European path goes further towards Schengen, but it stops at the Slovenian border.

SOUNDBITE (Croatian), Klemen GRO&#352;ELJ (Renew, SI), We also expect Croatia to do everything possible to ensure that European funds are not abused, which has been a problem in the past. Also, when it comes to the rule of law, that's a fundamental issue for the survival of the European Union.