ZAGREB, September 10, 2019 – The Croatian candidate for a European commissioner, Dubravka Šuica, has been nominated Commission Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, European Commission President-Elect Ursula von der Leyen announced on Tuesday.
Šuica (62) served three terms as a member of the Croatian Parliament from 2001 to 2011. Since 2004 she has been elected Vice-President of the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities for five times in a row.
In October 2012 Šuica was elected vice-president of the association of women of the European People’s Party (EPP). In April 2013 she was elected a member of the European Parliament and was re-elected in May 2014 and May 2019. She served as Vice-Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee and the Delegation for Relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina and with Kosovo. In June this year she became Vice-Chair of the EPP group, the largest political grouping in the European Parliament.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Tuesday that the nomination of Dubravka Šuica for the European Commission’s Vice-President for Democracy and Demography, which he described as a very important portfolio, is recognition of Croatia’s strength in the EU.
Addressing a press conference in Government House after the announcement, Plenković said that this is an exceptionally significant department in the Commission. “It will deal with existential topics for a series of member states,” said Plenković.
He underscored that this was confirmation of Croatia’s strength and is the result of the talks with EC President Ursula von der Leyen.
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