Andrej Plenkovic (Zagreb, 1970), Prime Minister of Croatia since October 2016, is optimistic about this interview in his office on Monday 16 January. On Jan. 1, his country joined the eurozone and the Schengen area, just a decade after joining the European Union in 2013. Romania and Bulgaria, who joined the EU in 2007, are still knocking on the door of a space that 423 million people is home to residents in 27 countries without internal borders. He believes that any changes that full integration will bring will be positive. Plenkovic was a member of the European Parliament and deputy ambassador in Paris. He has impeccable language skills in English, French and Italian. Since 2016 he has led a coalition government headed by the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). He represents the more moderate part of his party and has weak opposition on both the left and the right. In the European Union, she wants to do everything to support the integration of the Balkan countries, including Kosovo, which Spain does not recognize as an independent state.
question. How has Croatia changed in the ten years since it joined the EU?
answer. The entire society has matured since 2013. We are more mature in terms of how institutions work. We have made economic progress and there is a better quality of life.
P. How did Croatia’s war against Serbia (1991-1995) affect EU membership?
R. It was a brake. While others could focus on adjusting their laws and economies, we had to deal with occupied territories and the massacre of 20,000 people. [de los cuales 15.000 eran croatas étnicos], with more than $30,000 million in war damage… Now I’m investing in keeping all the minorities in the parliamentary coalition, especially the Croatian Serbs who are already in my second government. A woman who was eight when many Serbs left Croatia is now deputy prime minister [Anja Simpraga] and he is only 35 years old. We need all Croats who are committed to a more tolerant and European-oriented society.
P. How will full integration into the EU affect the country?
Subscribe to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe to
R. Everything will be positive. In tourism, 82% of arrivals come from the Schengen area. And 20% of our GDP comes from tourism. That’s why I’m expecting a surge in tourism this year like we’ve never seen before. The minor setback is the unfair behavior of some economic operators who increased the prices of their products or services shortly after the changeover to the euro. We expect GDP growth of up to 6%. Inflation, just over 10%. We weathered the 2022 crisis well, which was marked by brutal Russian aggression against Ukraine. There were neither bankruptcies, nor social revolts, nor social rupture.
P. Is Croatia at risk of being overexploited by tourism?
R. We have almost four million inhabitants. And that season we had 20 million tourists. In comparison, no larger country has so many visits. Our strategy is based on one keyword, namely sustainability. On the coast there are certain cases of excess concrete. But we still have many charming Mediterranean destinations that are more conservation oriented than many other competitive Mediterranean tourism markets.
P. Is it possible that citizens feel that the economic situation could be better?
R. Naturally. We are living at an unprecedented speed because of technology. Everyone wants everything and they want it now, as Freddie Mercury said. In Croatia, because we became victims of Slobodan Milosevic’s policies [expresidente serbio] our utopian ambitions were curbed. Our serious path to European integration only began in 2000. In contrast to Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which started in 1989. That is why this ten-year lag is still visible. So the fact that we manage to overtake Bulgaria and Romania [en la incorporación a Schengen] it is very unusual. I support these two countries and I will do everything to help them.
P. How will you stop irregular emigration at your borders?
R. We have made the decision not to build fences, walls or barbed wire between Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is a friendly country that has no other place than Croatia. It was a wise decision. What matters is that the government [conservador] The Greek Kyriakos Mitsotakis has changed the visa policy regarding the [izquierdista] by Syriza. Because before you could walk through Turkey to Greece and then to Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia… As soon as some of the illegal immigrants arrive in Bosnia-Herzegovina or Serbia as tourists, with the visa-free regime by plane, then they cross a green border to the west and become illegal immigrants. That is why we are talking to Serbia to eliminate these practices. Because then Austria has a problem and the end result is that Bulgaria and Romania do not join Schengen [por el bloqueo de Austria].
P. What is the country’s pending theme?
R. We have invested heavily in Autobahns. However, the railway was neglected for a long time. And this is where our Ministry of Transport wants to invest 4 billion euros over the next ten years, because the railways were literally left as they were during the war.
Plenkovic, after the interview, on January 16th. Francisco Peregil
P. How do you explain that a country that has achieved full integration into the EU in a decade has lost 10% of its population in that time, partly through emigration?
R. There are two problems. On the one hand, we have a negative natural growth rate typical of an aging society. In 2022 we only had 33,000 newborns. After World War II we reached almost 100,000. The second element is that since we joined the EU, there has been freedom of movement. And we have no power to say to the Croats: “Please don’t go to Germany, your salary will be higher there.” But as the country develops, people will have better salaries. And then this tendency becomes a return process.
P. Is Croatia’s full membership of the EU a sign of encouragement for the Balkans, especially Serbia and Kosovo?
R. For all. Croatia is an example, as was Slovenia for us. We are an excellent example for the other six countries that have remained in the great backyard of Europe: Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Our idea is to prioritize the Western Balkans region on the agenda [de la Unión Europea]. And I am sure that its President, Pedro Sánchez, shares this ambition. He knows the area.
P. Your administration’s use of European funds is met with much criticism in your country.
R All governments are criticized but we are in a strong position compared to the previous financial perspectives. We must be very careful to prevent and punish corrupt practices through the use or misuse of funds. But the system is solid now. I would say that we are not at the level of the founding countries. But as for the next generation [de países incorporados a la UE]only Spain and Italy are much faster than us [en emplear los fondos].
Q How do you feel about rebuilding after the 2020 earthquake, which has also received a lot of criticism?
R We just introduced the new Deputy Prime Minister for Construction [Branko Bacic, el tercero en dos años]. We have two goals: to fully utilize the money from the EU Solidarity Fund and secondly to get people out of temporary accommodation. It was a very difficult situation because in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, we had two earthquakes: one in the center of Zagreb and another in the Sisak-Moslavina region, which had already suffered great destruction during the war and a major depopulation problem. If there’s one region that needs special attention and care, it’s this one.
Follow all international information on Facebook and Twitteror in our weekly newsletter.
Subscribe to continue reading
Read without limits