Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday that the talks he held at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos were very useful for the strengthening of bilateral relations as well as for the positioning of Croatia on the global scene in the context of its current EU presidency.

“Yesterday and today we held a number of meetings… the talks in Davos were very useful, in terms of bilateral relations, our role regarding various topics and dossiers that are important for them in the context of Croatia’s EU presidency and generally for our positioning in forums like this one,” Plenkovic told Croatian reporters in Davos.

The Croatian PM on Tuesday attended two panels and held talks with a number of political officials and business people, and on Wednesday he met with French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno La Maire.

Before that meeting, he took part in the informal meeting “An ascendant Europe” on the topic of Europe’s future, “the strengthening of its position and its role as one of the main stakeholders in global trade.”

Plenkovic said that it was noted that the EU had to show leadership in global governance and do things that were in the interest of its companies and citizens, while taking into account social responsibility.

An overarching topic of the 50th World Economic Forum is social responsibility. The forum must take into account challenges such as climate change and topics that Croatia imposed in the European Council, such as the issue of demography and emigration of people from rural areas to urban ones and from less developed to more developed member states, said Plenkovic.

These topics were adopted in discussions held this year, which was not the case last year, said Plenkovic.