Dubravka Suica of the Croatian Democratic Party (HDZ) has been elected a vice president of the European People's Party (EPP), the group's delegates decided at an EPP conference on Wednesday in Rotterdam.

Suica, who is also the European Commissioner Vice President for Democracy and Demography, is one of ten vice presidents in the strongest club in the European Parliament.

German Christian Democrat Manfred Weber was elected as EPP president on Tuesday at the 27th EPP congress succeeding former Polish prime minister Donald Tusk.

EPP has lost power in several countries over the past few years – Spain, Germany, Bulgaria and Slovenia and now only 7 of the 27 heads of state or government in the EU are from the EPP.

In addition to Šuica the other nine EPP vice presidents are Christian Democrat  Esther de Lange from The Netherlands, otherwise, she is the commissioner for innovation, research, culture, education and youth; MEP Marija Gabriel from Bulgaria’s GERB party; MEP Esteban Gonzalez Pons from the Spanish National Party; European Commissioner for Budget and Administration, Austrian Johannes Hahn; Andrzej Halicki from the Polish Civil Platform, president of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister from the German Christian Democratic Union; Siegfried Muresan from the Romanian National Liberal Party;  the president of the Party for National Coalition Petteri Orpo from Finland and former European Parliament President Antonio Tajani from Italy.

The new secretary-general is Thanasis Bacolas, a former advisor to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Upon her election, Suica said that this also proved the excellent reputation of the HDZ in Europe.

During its gathering, EPP has adopted 14 resolutions, and one of them is about Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European perspective. Croatia’s Foreign Minister Grlić Radman said that the credit for the adoption of that document should go to the HDZ.