CROATIA AND ITS PRESIDENCY IN THE EU

My special comments today are about Croatia and its presidency of the EU at the moment.   Croatia is a country of 56.000 sq.km and with 4,3 mill. inhabitants. In addition about 1 mill. people of Croatian origin live in other countries around the world.  The country was part of Yugoslavia until 1991, and its main religion is Roman-Catholic.   In the independence wars between 1991-95 about 20.000 Croatians lost their lives.   The new country became a member of NATO in 2009 and of the European Union in 2013.  Its female president, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, was earlier ass. secretary-general in NATO. And its prime minister today is Andrej Plenkovic.

The country's name in Croatian is Hrvatska. This is the origin of the French name for tie (cravatte) and of the German name ( Kravatte ). Why? Because the Croatian soldiers in Napoleon's army at the time wore a special scarf - which was a sort of tie.

Croatia is president of the EU from January 1 this year. This is its first presidency. It replaced Finland. And on July 1 Germany will take over. Each presidency has its own programme with priorities. But the reality always is that 95 % of the activities are either continuation of work from earlier presidencies ( like Brexit and the multi-annual EU budget for 2021-2027 ) or are unforeseen urgencies ( like the corona-virus illness ). So only 5 % of the time can be allocated to priorities of the country holding the presidency.  In the case of Croatia it is f.eks. a stronger cooperation between the EU and all the countries in the Balkans.  A special summit on that will take place in Zagreb in May.  
Each EU presidency has a special logo.  The Croatian one ( see below ) was found in a competition, and the winner was a young student of graphics.

The tasks of a presidency are many. It has to chair all meetings of the EU Council of Ministers ( except the European Council and the Council of Foreign Ministers). It also chairs the ambassadors' meetings in COREPER and the meetings of the about 150 working groups preparing all the EU decisions.  In addition it often represents - in cooperation with the Commission - the EU in meetings with non-member states around the world.   So there is more than enough to do.

The experience is that presidencies run by smaller member states work better than those run by bigger member states. Why? Perhaps the smaller countries put extra effort into making a real success of it. And perhaps also because bigger countries sometime - even as president - look too much after their own interests.

English language media in Croatia:  
TOTAL CROATIA NEWS:     -    www.total.croatia-news.com

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