Zagreb, 8 June 2017 – MEP Željana Zovko participated today at the Round Table titled “Future of the European Union after Brexit”, organised by the European Commission Representation in the Republic of Croatia and the Institute for Development and International Relations.
Topics of the Round Table were the future EU scenario after Brexit, position of Croatia in the new EU with 27 member-countries and relations with the countries in the region.
MEP Zovko took part in the work of the panel “Croatia and the Western Balkans in the Redefined EU: Challenges and Opportunities“, together with Antun Buklijaš, Head of the Analytical Department in the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Milan Igrutinović from the Institute for European Studies from Serbia, Aleksandar Eraković, Chief Adviser in the Cabinet of the Prime-minister of Montenegro and Zoran Kurelić, professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences at the Zagreb University.
Zovko pointed out that the Croatian border must not be the last EU border and that the constitutional changes were required in Bosnia and Herzegovina, if the country wanted to join the European family.
“The last EU border may not be in Croatia, but further from Croatia, because that is how Croatia may protect the country’s peace and stability. It is the BiH Croats who represent the integrative factor, a needed connection and a factor of stability. The Dayton Agreement brought BiH Croats into unjust and unequal position in BiH – in the Federation, they are citizens of the second rank, whereas in another BiH entity, the Republic of Srpska, they are citizens of the third rank. If BiH wants to join the EU, the constitutional changes are an absolute must. We, the Croat representatives, have of course been working hard to get status of a candidate-country for BiH, but first we must resolve certain inequalities from the last 10 years imposed by various decisions of the High Representatives, whereby I am primarily referring to changes to the Election Law.“ – said Zovko.