ZAGREB, September 11, 2019 – Croatia’s candidate for a commissioner in the new European Commission, Dubravka Šuica, who was proposed by EC President-elect Ursula von der Leyen to be the Commission’s Vice President for Democracy and Demography, said on Tuesday that this nomination was great recognition of the Croatian politics.
Von der Leyen earlier in the day unveiled her team and after that the future Croatian commissioner tweeted that she was honoured to take part in the first gender-balanced European Commission.
“It is a great honour for me that we (Croatia) are given a post of the Vice President. Croatia is the youngest EU member and this is great acknowledgement for the work of our politics and our Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, who was one of the main negotiators and had a definitely a say in the process of giving us this portfolio,” Šuica said in her address to Croatian reporters in Brussels.
The EC president also decided to appoint Šuica as the head of a team responsible for organising a two-year conference on the future of Europe which should present what sort of European Union its citizens desire.
This includes discussions with citizens and dialogue which we have not had to date. It is necessary to listen to EU citizens who feel sometimes to be distanced from the European Union. I am supposed to be most visible in these efforts in central and east Europe, where democratic values are shaken sometime, Šuica said.
As for the sector of demography, Šuica said that many countries in the Union were faced with a population decline.
We are going to delve into this problem, and we are going to deal with brain drain and reasons why young people are leaving their countries, Šuica said adding that she would try to solve this issue horizontally.
The EC President-elect sent letters to each of 27 members of her team, and in her letter to the Croatian candidate, von der Leyen underscores that she expects palpable results regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe.
Šuica is supposed to prepare a report on the impact of demographic changes on different groups in societies in the first six months of her term, and identify models for dealing with those issues.
The Croatian Commissioner will coordinate work on a long-term vision for rural areas and is also supposed to coordinate activities aimed at preparing overall strategy on the rights of children.
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