The President met with leaders of European institutions.
President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović said in Brussels on Friday, after a series of meetings with the heads of the EU institutions, that it was necessary to focus more on Southeast Europe where the situation is worse than it was before, reports HRT on October 14, 2016.
On Friday, the President concluded her two-day visit to Brussels with a meeting with European Council President Donald Tusk. She said to journalists that they discussed the European Council meeting to be held next week in Brussels, the EU-Turkey cooperation, and the situation in the Croatian neighbourhood.
Summing up her two-day visit to Brussels during which she met with leaders of the European institutions – presidents of the European Commission, Parliament and the European Council, Jean-Claude Juncker, Martin Schulz and Donald Tusk, the President said that her interlocutors agreed with her observations. “In particular, this applies to the need to focus more on the situation in Southeast Europe and in individual countries. We need to keep the prospect of membership and to continue at the same time to clearly point out the need for further reforms”, said the President. “If we were to attempt to evaluate the situation in Southeast Europe at this point, unfortunately, it is worse than it was a year and a half or two years ago.”
Asked to comment on foreign policy led by the outgoing Croatian government, the President said that the government was in office for too short a time to give a general assessment, but added that more could have been done. “There were some good steps, good moves to protect national interests, but I think we could have worked together a little better, act with a little more coordination”, said the President and added that she hoped “that with the new government and Parliament we will increase our official coordination activities”.
“As you can see, the Foreign Ministry has not done a lot on the issue of a new national security strategy that will be very important and it is important that all of us who are at the top of the government and all those who represent Croatia in international bodies have coordinated positions, so that we do not speak with different voices and with what could be interpreted as contradictory attitudes”, she concluded.
