Brussels, 3 December 2025
Member of the European Parliament and member of the committee on security and defence (SEDE) included key amendments in the annual report on the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP).
In her amendments, Zovko stressed that the Western Balkans are an area of strategic and geopolitical interest for the EU and that the stability, security and democratic resilience of the region directly influences that of the entire continent. She also emphasized that the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Western Balkans are in need of greater European support in order to preserve stability and security, and increased defence cooperation, especially in terms of fight against disinformation and hybrid warfare.
Moreover, one of Zovko’s amendments highlighted that the operation EUFOR Althea sets a route towards peace, stabilization and the European integration of BiH and still plays a pivotal role for the security and stability of BiH and the region.
Zovko importantly called on the inclusion and participation of candidate countries in EU defence initiatives, such as PESCO projects, and underscored the opportunities for defence industrial cooperation with these candidate countries. Likewise, in her amendments, Zovko underlined that enhanced cooperation and interoperability with these partners would strengthen European resilience and reinforce the stability of the region as well as critical infrastructure resilience.
She also called for strategic communication of CSDP missions and operations around the world, especially in the European immediate neighbourhood and candidate countries such as BiH and called on enhancing visibility and strategic communication on the benefits, presence and the role of the CSDP missions and operations.
As regards CSDP missions, Zovko also highlighted in her amendments the importance of preserving cultural heritage in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and reconciliation, and called for appropriate systemic attention to these aspects in CSDP missions and operations.
Against a backdrop of increasing security challenges, she also welcomed the commitment to increase security cooperation with Southern Mediterranean partners and calls for enhanced cooperation with Mediterranean partner countries in the field of maritime security, countering sanctions circumvention and security of submarine cables, but also to combat extremism, terrorism and illicit arms trade.
Additionally, as former Chief observer of the Election Observation Mission in Jordan in 2024, Zovko called for the EU to support Jordan, also by increasing European Peace Facility funding in the protection of the Jordan-Syria border, as it is being used by traffickers as a crossing point for arms and drug trafficking and it has been weakened by the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.