The cohesion funds from the EU budget intended for Croatia will not be touched in the budget review which will be discussed in the coming months, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Brussels on Thursday.

The European Commission has proposed reviewing the seven-year Multiannual Financial Framework, requesting an additional €66 billion until 2027 that would mainly be intended for Ukraine, migration management, and boosting the resilience and competitiveness of the EU economy.

“We are a cohesion country, so it’s important the funds envisaged for our balanced regional development remain untouched and they won’t be touched,” Plenkovic said ahead of a two-day summit of EU leaders.

“We marked that position in talks with Budget Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who was in Zagreb a few weeks ago.”

The summit began with a working lunch with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. At the very beginning, European Council President Charles Michel congratulated Croatia on ten years of EU membership.

Plenkovic said the summit was important “so that we show how much all of us together, as member states and the Union, are capable of dealing with the challenges happening in recent years. Considering all these crises, there have really been a lot.”

Asked about the situation in the north of Kosovo, he said it was necessary to deescalate and ensure conditions for new elections in four municipalities with a majority Serb population so that Serbs did not boycott them as they did last time.