“We have never seen such unity from the EU, such a clear condemnation against Russia”, Andrej Plenković

On January 1, Croatia adopted the euro and became the 20th member of the Eurozone and the 27th member of the Schengen area, an area without internal border controls. To talk about it, I am in Davos with the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković.

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

Let’s start by talking about this milestone in the history of your country, the accession to the euro zone and the Schengen area. Firstly, how is the transition going for the government and, more importantly, for the citizens?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“That’s right, January 1, 2023 was a historic moment. We are the only country so far that has joined both the eurozone and the Schengen area on the same day. And, of course, the transition, which is from the From a technical point of view, everything that was under the control of the State, went very well. There were no problems. ATMs were working. There were enough euro coins, euro bills. All the payment transfer system worked perfectly. We had the first two weeks of dual use of Croatian kunas and euros without any difficulties. From Sunday, we will only use euros anymore, so we can say that it has been very good. The only incident we have is that some of the economic operators went up their prices in the context of rounding the prices from kunas to euros, which is not fair. And now we have the different inspections that deal with these issues and try, as a government, to convince them to put the prices back as they were at the end of December 2022”.

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

Also, this is the biggest concern of citizens when they enter the euro zone, that prices go up, especially now that we have the cost of living crisis. Are you already taking special measures against this?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“Of course, like everyone else globally on the European continent, in Croatia, we have faced the ramifications of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, its consequences in the energy crisis, in the food crisis, in the pressures on the inflation The six years that Croatia invested to join the euro zone coincided with an altered global context, which also influenced the increase in prices in Croatia, inflation… I would just like to say that in 2022, according to our office statistically, inflation in Croatia was 10.8%, barely 1% above the eurozone average, but lower than that of all EU countries that are in Central and Eastern Europe and do not have the euro. We believe that this little situation will calm down, that things will go back to normal. We have measures and of course we, as a government, intervened a lot. There was a package of 3.6 billion euros for our citizens and our economic operators micos in 2022 to preserve social cohesion and avoid social fractures. I would say that when the State did everything it could, it is fair that all the actors in our system, including some of the economic operators, I insist, some, not all, behave appropriately.”

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

And now we come to the reason for all this crisis that we are seeing. Europe, the United States, the international community in general, have imposed sanctions against Russia to limit its ability to finance this war. But, President Zelensky says that it is not enough. Do you think Europe is doing enough?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“Well, I have to say that the situation with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, which has been going on for almost 11 months now, is an unprecedented situation on the European continent. We were victims of aggression in the early 1990s, but the scale of this military campaign against Ukraine is much greater and the consequences for the people killed, those who have had to seek refuge, the enormous material damage and, of course, the consequences for the whole of Europe.My feeling as one of the leaders of the European Council is that we have never seen, until now, such unity of the European Union, such determination, such a clear and articulate condemnation of Russia and such an enormous degree of solidarity with Ukraine, not only politically, diplomatically, economically, in financial, humanitarian, but also military.

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

How do you think this war will end?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“Like any conflict, it will end at the diplomatic table. But the key is that we support Ukraine in recovering its territories, in preserving its sovereignty, in preserving the constitutional order. And all the heroic struggle of the Ukrainian people and their military and their leaders, who decided to stay and be with their people, will ultimately be the winning element.”

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

Since you mentioned the war in your country, 30 years ago, are there any lessons that could be useful, that could be applied and could be useful for the situation in Ukraine right now?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“I have been making proposals for the last eight years, since the 2014 crisis, since the occupation of Crimea, the illegal referendums, the annexation and everything that happened in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. At that time, I was a member of the European Parliament and head of delegation for Ukraine And the experience of Croatia, which we have lived through, and we have just celebrated the 25th anniversary of peaceful reintegration, I cannot emphasize more, for the Russian media in particular, the peaceful reintegration of the former territories occupied Eastern Slavonia, through diplomatic mediation, through the involvement of the United Nations, through special mechanisms that ensured that all who lived there could stay, and all those who wanted Croatia to rebuild its territorial integrity and constitutional order were successful. That was a fantastic operation 25 years ago, and I think that was the model that could and should have been applied also for for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions”.

Fay Dougkeri, Euronews:

Let’s close this talk. We are going to talk a little about the Balkans, a region where tensions have increased lately. We see tensions in Bosnia, where there is a large Croat community, and there is also tension between Serbia and Kosovo. Do you think we could see a destabilization in the area?

Andrej Plenković, Prime Minister of Croatia:

“No. There has never been more engagement at the highest level of the European Union with the Western Balkans region, than in the course of 2022. I think all my colleagues understood that we need to engage more, talk to leaders and influence the process This is happening Secondly Serbia and Montenegro are negotiating Finally North Macedonia and Albania started accession negotiations Bosnia and Herzegovina was granted candidate status and Kosovo has applied to join What the countries What they need to do now in the region is to alleviate tensions between them, address the problems of the functioning of the State and democracy in many of them, and also alleviate the tensions that were previously the causes of the conflict and also the military situation. such a high participation and commitment of the European partners in the EU institutions, we will not go through some kind of incident that could lead to destabilization. or we must be careful, stay engaged and all leaders must take their own responsibility. Because the more countries that are stable and functioning, the faster their path to the European Union will be.”

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