Croatia should be ready for ongoing changes during its presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020, including an adjustment of priorities, Lilyana Pavlova, minister for the Bulgarian presidency of the Council of the EU, said in Zagreb on Monday.

Priorities should be defined as broadly as possible, so that they can be adjusted to specific challenges, Pavlova said in her address at Europe House in downtown Zagreb.

Set ambitious, yet attainable goals for yourselves, she said, adding that the EU presidency is both a great opportunity and a great challenge for member states.

Bulgaria held the six-month, rotating EU presidency in the first half of 2018, taking over from Estonia, with Austria taking over in August 2018.

Croatia is set to hold the presidency of the EU in January – June 2020.

Pavlova spoke of organisational, diplomatic, technical, financial and political challenges in the preparation and execution of the Bulgarian EU presidency in the first half of 2018 and of the main themes of the presidency, including the future of young people and Europe, connecting the Western Balkans, security, and the digital economy.

She said that “an entire army of people” had been involved in the implementation of the presidency programme, and that the Bulgarian government had decided to form a dedicated ministry to centralise the process and make it more effective.

Pavlova said she believed that the environment and climate change, security, digital transformation and the multiannual financial framework for 2021-2027 would turn out to be the main themes of the Croatian presidency.

She said that the presidency required cooperation at national, European and global levels, stressing the importance of dialogue with citizens and positive media coverage.

Andreja Metelko-Zgombic, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, said that Croatia’s preparations for the EU presidency were well under way. She added that the priorities themselves would be adopted just before the presidency and would reflect the EU agenda at that point.

The presentation was moderated by Violeta Simeonova Stanicic, head of the Croatian Office of the European Parliament, who spoke of the timing of the Croatian presidency. She noted that a new European Commission and a new European Parliament would take office at the time, warning that the influence of new political factions could be expected.

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