Speaking about the Conference on the Future of Europe, where citizens expressed the need to amend the fundamental EU Treaty, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Friday that we "need to hold our horses."

The concluding meeting of the Conference on the Future of Europe, due to be held in Strasbourg on Monday, will crown an entire year of gatherings and debates with citizens on their ideas of what he Union should look like, and the final report will be delivered to the presidents of the European Parliament, Council and Commission.

Some of the recommendations by citizens are directed at abolishing the right of veto in Council decision making and they demand changes to the very foundations of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

“We will hear the report on Monday. We will discuss it in Croatia and at the Council level, whether to rush into calling a convention that  would again change the fundamental Treaty or to think twice whether this is the right moment for that move,” Plenkovic said while addressing a panel discussion on Croatia’s contribution within the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

The European Parliament has expressed its readiness to convene a convention and launch a reform of the fundamental Treaty, which for the EU is the same as a constitution for a national state.

“I  think we need to hold our horses. The Croatian government’s view is that the present treaties have sufficient room for progress,” Plenkovic underscored.

Plenkovic said he believes that “if circumstances change over the next few months, if we all  together identify those areas that will require interventions in the institutional structure, and in particular in decision making processes, then we need to see together what those areas are in the fundamental Treaties that would possibly need modifying.”

“This is more or less the position of all small or medium-sized countries and it is logical that that is so because our view is that by transferring our sovereignty, strengthening the Union with our contribution, strengthening ourselves and our policies, we want our voice in the EU to be strong and equal and, ultimately, to have importance and, where necessary, to be the voice of protection of national interests,” Plenkovic said.

In his introductory remarks, Plenkovic said that it was important for Croatia that the EU enlargement policy was given a significant place in the Conference, notably enlargement to southeast Europe, and in particular Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).

“BiH is of vital importance for Croatia, particularly for Croats as a constituent and equal people which, based on the existing election law unfortunately cannot exercise this right in an equitable way,” said Plenkovic.

He said that Zagreb would continue to advocate their equality and amendments to the election law so that Croats would not be outvoted through election engineering and would not be blamed for raising their voice. “That is unacceptable,” the prime minister stressed

That is why our arguments have always been on the side of those who do not enjoy equal rights under the present law, he said. “Here I am referring specifically to the Federation BiH entity,” Plenkovic said.

Speaking about Europe and its future, the prime minister said that compared with 2019, circumstances in the world have changed fundamentally, including the worst pandemic in the past 100 years and the brutal aggression on Ukraine that has brought down all the foundations of international order and caused such repercussions for the world and Europe that we have not seen since World War II.

He underscored that Croatia will support Ukraine’s special status as well as EU membership prospects for Georgia and Moldova.

“Ukraine has applied for EU membership. Croatia will support it, aware of the framework and reality of what is possible and what isn’t. We will support the special status because in that way we strengthen and structure our dialogue and our support for a country that is suffering aggression,” Plenkovic said.

“We are witnessing a great tragedy for the Ukrainian people and the biggest energy crisis in  decades, increased energy prices and consequently the rise in prices of of food and raw materials. We see how much this crisis we are going through now has deepened the energy, climate and food crisis,” said Plenkovic.

He said we need a strong European Union in an uncertain and unpredictable global context.

“We know that the current global competition is de facto between authoritarian regimes and democracy,” he said, emphasising the importance of strengthening the Union’s security and defence sectors and greater cooperation with the NATO alliance, particularly in light of the Russian aggression.

He believes that the Union needs unity with regard to climate objectives and energy policies.

Plenkovic assessed that the gradual abolishment of dependence on Russian gas requires a transition period so additional disruptions do not occur.

“That is a moral choice, a matter of principle but also at the same time we have to ensure that all those restrictive measures are imposed in such a way that our societies and economies can continue functioning in new circumstances, and in a financially and economically sustainable manner,” he concluded.