Croatia's presidency of the Council of the EU in 2020 will be crucial for the EU's unity, the visiting chief EU negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, said in Zagreb on Wednesday.

Barnier made the statement to reporters outside the government offices in Zagreb.

Croatia takes over the six-month chairmanship of the EU on 1 January 2020.

We should work on the unity of 27 member-states so as to enable agreement with the United Kingdom, not against it but with it, because the UK will remain our partner and friend in any case, Barnier said.

He also said that one should start working as soon as possible on what, in his opinion, is more important than the divorce with Great Britain – a new, strong relationship within the EU.

Earlier in the day, Barnier met with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, with whom later in the day he will attend a dialogue with citizens on Europe’s future at Zagreb’s Faculty of Economics.