Presenting a report on the meetings of the European Council to the members of the parliament, Plenković in particular referred to the discussions on Bosnia and Herzegovina, stressing it was a success that a reference on BiH’s constituent peoples was included in the Strategic Compass, at Croatia’s insistence.
“Those in charge of the foreign policy before us could also have discussed this topic, but they never did in this way,” said Plenković.
MPs of the Bridge party criticised Plenković for not having done enough to change the existing BiH election law, which allows for Croats there to be outvoted due to their small number.
MP Marija Selak Raspudić (Bridge) pointed out that a reference to constituent peoples in the Strategic Compass was not a success as that was a fact which was part of the BiH Constitution.
“Equality of constituent peoples did not exist as a reference. That may seem obvious, simple to you, like copying the Constitution, but it is not,” said Plenković, underscoring that Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic explicitly opposed it.
According to Plenković, this “speaks of the rooted attitudes in the international community, which was primarily generated by the political narrative of Sarajevo”.
“In Sarajevo, there have been no Croats in the political sense for nearly two decades, and this fact is partly the reason why all international representatives who spend some time there ultimately adopt that narrative,” said Plenković.
According to him, for years there has been a lack of understanding of the way BiH is organised.
“Changing that after so many years is extremely difficult,” said Plenković, adding that his cabinet has done more over the past two years than all the previous governments combined.
PM: I don’t think drone crashed in Zagreb by accident
Plenković also commented on the crash of a Soviet-era unmanned aerial vehicle in Zagreb on 10 March, saying that it was indicative that it had exploded during an informal meeting in Versailles, when a statement on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine was discussed.
“It is not highly probable that of all the places within the radius of its range, it crashed in the capital of Croatia. I’m not so inclined to believe in the strange aleatory path of that unmanned aerial vehicle considering how likely it was for it to crash in Zagreb,” said Plenković.
Davorko Vidović of the SDP said that Croatia, despite all claims of the government’s foreign policy successes, “is the only member of the European Union that has been attacked, and we as citizens do not know who attacked us and why”.
At the moment, we cannot categorically state whether that was an attack, a mistake or sabotage, said Plenković.
Friendly relations with Ukraine
The Croatian premier also spoke about the EU’s response to Russia’s aggression and pointed out that the European Union and Croatia “show solidarity, unity and determination” by providing humanitarian, political, military, technical and other aid to Ukraine and with readiness to find alternative energy sources.
“Croatia has sincere and friendly relations with Ukraine. Ukraine was the first to recognise us. We support its sovereignty and integrity,” Plenković said.
He noted that Croatia had received 15,000 refugees from Ukraine, that it had supported the opening of an investigation of the International Criminal Court into war crimes in Ukraine, and that it supported Ukraine’s European perspective.
“Croatia will help Ukraine, we want it to get a special institutional status with regard to the EU in these circumstances,” said Plenković.
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