The two-day forum is hosted by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.
The area between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Sea “is the lifeblood” of Europe and it is necessary to invest 50 billion euros for its development. However, due to historical reasons this area lags behind the EU average, said on Thursday President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović at the opening of the Dubrovnik Forum, which brought together presidents and high-ranking government officials from numerous countries, report Večernji List and Jutarnji List on August 26, 2016.
The Baltic-Adriatic-Black Sea region (BABS) makes 28 percent of the EU territory and 22 percent of its population, but accounts for only 10 percent of EU’s GDP. Nominal GDP per capita is around 14,750 euros, which is only about 51 percent of average for the EU, said the President.
Polish President Andrzej Duda insisted on the importance of energy connections. “The dominance of a single supplier for the region is harmful and dangerous”, said the President. He mentioned the gas corridor between the north and the south, as well as the LNG terminal on the island of Krk. However, energy infrastructure will not solve all the processes, said Duda and called for the strengthening of cultural and scientific cooperation and exchange of students. Duda announced that the next meeting of BABS would take place in Wroclaw in June 2017.
The Forum continued on Friday. Migrant wave, terrorist threats, instability at the eastern borders of the European Union are challenges which the EU is facing and must deal with them with common policies, said the participants of the Global Challenges panel on Friday.
“The aim of this panel is to discuss in general terms the current geopolitical challenges” and how “closer cooperation and partnership in Europe through different regions” can contribute to strengthening of the EU and help solve other global challenges, said Foreign Minister Miro Kovač. Nowadays, there is a lot of uncertainty and complexity, and no country can solve all the challenges alone, and so we all “depend on each other”, said Kovač.
The EU enlargement is a priority for Croatia, said Andrej Plenković, HDZ president and Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament. He added that Croatia demands of its neighbours to meet the European criteria and respect the remaining issues that must be addressed. He explicitly mentioned Serbia, which under the guise of the law on universal jurisdiction wants to prosecute Croatian citizens for crimes allegedly committed in Croatia. This standard will not be accepted, said Plenković.
