Public sentiment towards the European Union has changed drastically compared to five years ago, when the Croatian EU membership referendum passed, said Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković on Thursday, adding that his government would put in additional efforts to strengthen the pro-European “sentiment”.

Plenković spoke on the subject after the government accepted the 2018-2021 Action Plan for the implementation of the Croatian-French strategic partnership which prioritizes the strengthening of the European partnership between the two countries, as well as economic and cultural exchanges. The signing of the plan is scheduled for tomorrow, when the French Minister for European Affairs Nathalie Loiseau will arrive in Zagreb. Plenković said that one additional benefit of her arrival will be a public forum held at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.

“French President Macron wants to additionally support this initiative and I am glad that the first example of the initiative, much discussed in the last few European Council meetings, will be in Croatia. I think this is very good for Croatian-French cooperation, as well as, I must say, for the return of Europe-related topics into the public discourse in a healthy way,” Plenković said, and added that, since the referendum campaign five years ago, a “strange, almost anti-European reflex has developed, an orientation in some other directions.”

This is why the government, especially the ministry of foreign and European affairs, need to put in extra effort to “consolidate European values”, he said.

“Now, before the fifth membership anniversary, two years ahead of our presidency of the EU, I believe we must consolidate precisely this sense of belonging and identification with the values we strove for, fulfilled and reached, in public discourse,” Plenković said.

“I think this is something we must work on together,” he added. “And I believe that tomorrow’s event with students, in this digital time, will be a good opportunity to underline all the positives of our EU membership and to strengthen our sense of belonging and our motivation.”

He expects to see active participation from all the government ministers, as well as wider engagement by all other political actors. “This is the reason we have taken numerous important political steps and reforms in the last thirty years,” Plenković concluded.