The European People's Party (EPP) will hold a convention in Croatia's capital Zagreb in November, where the group is expected to elect its senior leadership. The meeting will be attended by top EU officials, Jutarnji List daily reported on Friday.
The convention will be attended by a number of European heads of state and government and senior EU officials, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen, outgoing Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, and European Council President Donald Tusk, and the convention is to take place on November 20-21, Jutarnji List daily said.
Over 2,000 delegates from more than 40 countries in which the EPP has members will vote to elect new party leadership, including president, secretary-general, ten vice-presidents and a treasurer. The gathering will be hosted by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and its leader, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.
Other officials attending the meeting will be Austrian Chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, European Parliament President, Joseph Daul, leader of the EPP group in the European Parliament, Manfred Weber, European commissioners and members of the European Parliament, former European Parliament President, Antonio Tajani, former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, and EPP heads of state or government from Ireland, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and other countries.
According to Jutarnji List, it remains unclear whether Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, would arrive in Zagreb, because his party has been suspended from the EPP and has no voting rights – even though they have been invited to attend the convention. Also unclear is whether Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, would attend the meeting. His Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) is an associate member of the EPP – although they do not have voting rights, they too have been invited.
The conservative EPP is the largest group in the current European Parliament assembly, with 182 MEPs affiliated with EPP holding seats in the 751-seat parliament after the May 2019 elections.
