Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Tuesday confirmed that Croatia would nominate Dubravka Suica for its Commissioner in the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen.

“Following internal consultations and talks with the new EC President Ursula von der Leyen, we are going to make the decision at tomorrow’s meeting of the inner cabinet that we nominate Dubravka Suica for our new member of the European Commission,” Plenkovic told reporters after the ceremony of opening the 6th World Bridge Youth Open Championships in the Croatian seaside resort of Opatija.

A Croatian member of the European Parliament, Dubravka Suica, has been elected to the EP three times, and her first election of a Croatian MEP was in 2013 when Croatia joined the Union. She was reelected in 2014 and in 2019.

Suica, 62, a teacher of English and German language and literature, worked in several schools in her hometown of Dubrovnik and was the headmaster of a local grammar school. During her political career, Suica, an official of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), was a member of the national parliament and the mayor of Dubrovnik from 2001 to 2009.

Suica has been a vice-president of the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs, and of the EP delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo. In June this year she became a vice-president of the European People’s Party (EPP).

The nominated commissioners proposed by EC President Ursula von der Leyen are to be confirmed by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union.