Press Advisories

4. 11. 201920:17

Prime Minister Babiš meets the Prime Minister of Croatia

On Monday 4 November the Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenković, at the Friends of Cohesion summit. They discussed trade and economic relations, Brexit, migration and European topics such as the EU’s long-term budget and the forthcoming Croatian presidency of the Council of the European Union.

“I’m pleased that Prime Minister Plenković has honoured us with his visit, especially because Croatia will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union next year, which will be a crucial time for negotiations on Brexit and especially the multiannual financial framework,” Prime Minister Babiš said.

The two prime ministers met before the opening of the Friends of Cohesion summit in Prague. Their talks mainly concerned various European topics. “The multiannual financial framework is the most important thing in the near future. We share the same view of it, and we’ll be talking about that at the summit. On behalf of the Czech Republic I can say that even if we get less money, the main thing is we ourselves would like to decide what to do with it, and for it to be used above all for investment,” Prime Minister Babiš said.

Another topic they discussed was illegal migration. According to the European Commission, in October Croatia met the criteria for joining the Schengen Area. “We’ve got enough border guards who are trained and equipped to protect Croatia’s border and can stop illegal migration via the Balkan route. We all agree that we have to stop illegal migration primarily in the source countries, and then on the border of the first European country, i.e. Bulgaria’s border with Turkey,” Prime Minister Plenković added.

The prime ministers also discussed bilateral trade, which has increased dramatically since Croatia joined the EU in 2013. Over the last five years the bilateral trade balance has risen from almost 540 million euro in 2014 to nearly 830 million euro in 2018.