The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Friday 10 January that the success of her Commission – which has an ambitious agenda for the first 100 days of its term of office – was linked to that of the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council, which ends on 30 June.
“You are the Presidency of our first 100 days. Our success therefore also depends on your success”, she explained after a meeting between the members of the European Commission and the Croatian government in Zagreb.
The four priorities of the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council – a Europe that develops, connects, protects and influences internationally – are closely linked to the Commission’s priorities. And the challenges are numerous. Thus, in front of the press, Mrs von der Leyen and the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, outlined the major issues on which they will have to cooperate.
MFF. “This Presidency will be crucial to ensuring that our ambitions are supported in the multiannual financial framework and, at the same time, to promoting greater convergence between our Member States”, Mrs von der Leyen warned. Like Croatia, and contrary to the proposal of the previous Finnish EU Council Presidency, Mrs von der Leyen advocated a European Defence Fund with a sufficient endowment. “It is in the European interest to have a lot of interoperability, that’s why the fund is important and it has an effect on the whole industry and SMEs. [...] It is in our interest, the interest of the common market, of industry, of small businesses, to have [a] necessary sum”, the former German Defence Minister said.
Brexit. Another negotiation, and not the least important one, under the Croatian Presidency is the one on future relations between the EU and the United Kingdom. “There is a difference between being a Member State or not – and there are trade-offs between regulatory divergences on the one hand, and access to the single market on the other. This room for manoeuvre must now be explored in the forthcoming negotiations”, the Commission President recalled, announcing that an update on the progress made would be given in June. “This will be an essential step within the framework of the Croatian Presidency”, she stressed.
Enlargement. The Commission and the Croatian Presidency of the EU Council will also work on the thorny issue of enlargement, culminating in the EU-Western Balkans Summit on 7 May in Zagreb. “The next few months will, of course, be crucial for our relationship with the Balkans”, said Mrs von der Leyen, while the EU Council Presidency held by Croatia, a Balkan country and the newest EU member, offers “a unique opportunity” to deal with this issue.
The Zagreb summit will be a “potential milestone in this process”, she said. But for that, “we still have a lot of work to do”, she warned. The Commission will soon present a new methodology to “reflect on how we can improve the accession process”. And while some Member States would like this methodology to be settled before any concrete progress is made in the process, for Mrs von der Leyen, this work must be done in parallel and “must not prevent us from starting accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania”. “We would like to enter into a new dynamic and, if possible, unblock the situation” with these two countries, Plenković added.
Croatia, as the country holding the Presidency of the EU Council, will also lead the preparations for the ‘EU Strategy with Africa’. “We are counting on you to build consensus in the EU Council on some of the important trade agreements we have”, Mrs von der Leyen also stressed. Some Member States, such as Austria, have, for example, made no secret of their hostility to the trade agreement with Mercosur. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant and Hermine Donceel)