In a lecture titled „Croatian Presidency of the EU – Strengthening European Resilience “, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović discussed many challenges the EU faces.
Kolinda Grabar Kitarović stated that Europe must strengthen its resilience to all threats in its political, economic and security environment. Not only is the EU facing its own political, economic, and institutional terms, at this point, EU could face the challenge of a potential new wave of migration. Furthermore, she’s spoken of the necessity for Croatia to enter the Schengen zone. In her words, the security of Croatian, and thus the European border, is guaranteed by the Croatian police and the competent authorities whose professionalism is unquestionable.
Kolinda Grabar Kitarović also pointed to the challenges of transatlantic alliance, as well as the priorities of Croatian presidency of the EU and the political guidance of the European Commission with focus on demographics, youth, climate changes, digitalisation, strengthening small and medium size enterprises. It is important to note that these topics, along with strengthening the idea of Europe of equal speed, or balanced development for all, including its underdeveloped parts, were the focus of Kolinda Grabar Kitarović tenure as the President of Croatia.
By pointing out the fact that every country can be as great as its ambitions, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović has brought back the attention to the Three Seas Initiative, that she launched alongside Polish president Duda, and which greatly contributes economic development and European cohesion. The importance of this initiative was recognized by the European Commission, as well as the USA, by granting a billion-dollar investment.
Finally, regarding the Conference on the Future of Europe, Grabar Kitarović urged that one of the priorities of strengthening Europe in a world of constant challenges be direct democracy, proximity of citizens to government institutions which will recognize the expectations and problems the citizens face and work responsibly and devotedly on bringing the solutions.
