Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a European People's Party (EPP) congress Wednesday that the EPP should be the leading political force in condemning and imposing sanctions against Russia and that Ukraine deserved European Union candidate status.

Speaking at the 27th EPP Congress in Rotterdam, Plenkovic said that the Russian aggression, which has lasted for more than three months, was not just military, but that it violated international law and negated the Ukrainian nation and identity.

We, as the EPP, express our solidarity, support and sympathy for the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for freedom and for European values for all of us. We thank them for that, the Croatian prime minister said.

Plenkovic said he thinks that the EPP should be the leading political force in condemning Russian actions, imposing sanctions, and not tolerating policies that violate everything we stand for.

He called for continuing political, diplomatic, financial, economic, humanitarian and military support for Ukraine.

‘Ukraine deserves EU candidate status’

Plenkovic  said he believes that Ukraine deserves candidate status in the European Union, which it might gain soon.

We will support granting Ukraine EU candidate status at the European Council in June. The Ukrainians are expecting that, the Ukrainians deserve that and that symbolic gesture by the EU will be another correct and moral choice in this unprecedented crisis, he underscored.

He reiterated that Croatia supported the European aspirations of other countries, mentioning Georgia, Moldova, Kosovo and neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We’d like for the issue of constitutional and electoral reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina to be resolved in that process in order for all three constituent peoples to be treated equally and to feel satisfied and at ease, Plenkovic said.

Earlier on Wednesday, the European People’s Party adopted a resolution calling for electoral and constitutional reforms in Bosnia and Herzegovina in line with decisions by international courts and the Bosnian Constitutional Court.

The “emergency resolution”, tabled by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) calls for “electoral reforms to be addressed swiftly in an inclusive manner while complying with the requirements of EU membership.”

Strengthening European defence

The prime minister called on his colleagues from the largest group in the European Parliament to make the EPP a leader in demographic revitalisation, the digital revolution and in the fight against climate change by the 2024 European election. He also called for strengthening European defence.