Plenković: A great European left us too early

David Sassoli was a great politician, a great man, Italian, European, a friend of Croatia, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday ahead of paying tribute to the late president of the European Parliament.

David Sassoli was a great politician, a great man, Italian, European, a friend of Croatian, a man I worked with at the EP a few years ago, the EP president during Croatia's first presidency of the Council of the EU and of course a colleague I often saw at the beginning of every European Council, Plenković told the press in Strasbourg.

David Maria Sassoli, born in Florence on 30 May 1956, was a journalist for many years before being elected to the EP in 2009, and a decade later he became president of that institution.

He passed away on 11 January in a hospital in Aviano in northern Italy, where he had been hospitalised since 26 December "because of a severe complication due to a dysfunction of the immune system".

Plenković added that Sassoli was a man who had known us well, supported Croatia's path both to the Schengen Area and the euro area.

Since he was a man who truly gave his all and built bridges in this house of European democracy, and that is the EP, I am also personally sorry that he left us too soon, the Croatian prime minister said.

Before paying his respects to the late EP president, Plenković met with acting EP President Roberta Metsola, who could succeed Sassoli.

We believe that the EP would adopt a positive opinion on Croatia's accession to the euro area under her presidency in the first half of 2022, the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

Text: Hina

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