The current Vice-President of the European Commission, Dubravka Suica, has been re-nominated as a member of the Commission on the basis of her achievements and political legitimacy. However, it is not yet time to speculate on which portfolio she will head, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday.

Suica, the Commissioner for Demography and Democracy and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Commission, spoke today to the Croatian Parliament’s European Affairs Committee about her work to date and the priorities of the next European Commission.

Earlier this month, the Croatian government re-nominated her for membership of the Commission for the 2024-2029 term.

The former mayor of Dubrovnik and former member of the Croatian and European Parliament is once again Croatia’s candidate for the Commission, “based on her results,” Plenkovic said.

Suica: Change could not be seen overnight

She has been elected to the European Parliament four times, is familiar with its work, knows the workings of the European Commission, is Vice-President of the European People’s Party, has excellent co-operation with the Croatian government, has visited all EU countries and works on issues that are extremely important for Croatia, he said.

Plenkovic would not yet reveal which portfolio Suica will head, but indicated that she will have a Directorate-General and hinted that Croatia has ambitions for certain portfolios and is lobbying in this direction. He added that we would first have to wait and see the “overall architecture” of the new Commission.

Opposition MPs criticised Suica, claiming that she had not achieved anything “tangible” in terms of demography and democracy during her current term in the Commission.

She said these were areas where change could not be seen overnight and that it was already a success that demography had become an important issue at EU level.

The demography portfolio was included in the current Commission at Croatia’s initiative and today it is increasingly being said at EU level that it would be good for all Member States to set up ministries in this area, she added.