PM Plenkovic: Threat of terrorism is Europe's reality

Monday's attack in Manchester is one more proof that the threat of terror on the territory of the European Union is real, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said during an international conference on the future of Europe and political and security challenges, organised by the Information Office of the European Parliament in Zagreb on Friday.

PM Plenkovic, who expressed his sympathy with the families of the victims in Manchester and the British Government, in his speech said that situations like that in Manchester, Bataclan and so on are the reality of contemporary Europe.

"We must take this into account when we speak about strengthening internal and external security in the EU," Plenkovic said.

Commenting on the idea of the European Union and NATO that member-states are expected to earmark 2% of Gross Domestic Product for defence spending, the premier said that his cabinet "is considering how we can head in that direction".

The Croatian government has already raised defence spending from the 2017 budget.

Likewise, we will try to invest those funds so as to increase our interoperability with our allies, he said.

A year ago, the European Union adopted a global strategy of the foreign and security policy that is now being implemented.

"I think that the awareness about necessary strengthening of this defence dimension of the EU is very pronounced by the fact that the negotiations about the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU is being conducted under Article 50 ...and regarding its defence capabilities it is certainly the strongest member and its exit considerably changes the nature of our capability and our strength to act in many international missions, Plenkovic said.

According to Plenkovic, Croatia understands this context and one of the first decisions of his cabinet was to set up task forces to elaborate a new strategy of national security and a new law on Homeland security.

Both documents have come under public consideration and Plenkovic hopes that they will be adopted by a broad consensus.

He noted that both security and normal flow of people and vehicles were important for Croatia as a country in which tourism accounted for 18% of GDP.

He recalled that agreement had been reached on how to apply the upgraded Schengen code in the event of 15-minute delays at border crossings.

During the conference two panels were held with Croatian and foreign speakers participating in them.

Text: Hina

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