Parliamentary Assembly

Madam President, first of all congratulations on your election yesterday. Secretary General, thank you for this morning’s very satisfactory meeting. Members of Parliaments, it is an honour for me to be here in Strasbourg, a European capital, and it is an honour for me to address you, honourable members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, for this venerable institution, which was established in the aftermath of the Second World War, symbolises more than any other institution the reconciliation between peoples on our continent, peoples who for too long in history tore each other apart.

Above all, however, this institution illustrates the advantages that our nations can derive from co-operation based on shared and fundamental values, such as freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. These are values to which my country has long aspired and the advent of which, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, was for Croatia a synonym of our regained independence in 1991, and marked our return to the large European family of democratic nations.

Sadly, the first years of our independence were marred by war. Today, that war is far behind us, but the tragic experience of it has helped us to better grasp the full importance of peace and the values defended by the Council of Europe. That is why today I pay tribute to the founders of this pan-European Organisation. I commend them for the pioneering role that this Organisation has played since 1949 in building Europe, while our continent still lay in ruins.

I also commend all of you who, through your work, continue to make Europe a reference point in terms of democracy and human rights. It is Europe that continues to embody and inspire hope for many men and women around the world whose fundamental rights are trampled over, because those rights are what the Council of Europe stands for, and I thank you for it. That said, we member States of the Council of Europe must all ensure that the standards that we share are implemented unequivocally and everywhere within our States, at the local, regional, national and international levels.

As you are aware, Croatia took up the chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers on 18 May. This is the first time that we have held the chairmanship since joining the Council of Europe in 1996. However, before joining the Council of Europe family, Croatia had to meet a long list of commitments and obligations, which led to a far-reaching transformation of our society and greatly contributed to strengthening democratic standards in my country, to the great benefit of all our citizens.

Today the image of Croatia – and the position it now holds – reflects the progress we have achieved in entrenching democratic values within our society. It also reflects the results we have obtained through our tireless efforts to solve a number of specific issues. Croatia is not content simply with implementing principles at national level; we actively promote them at European level. Yesterday you heard our four priorities for our chairmanship: the fight against corruption, the protection of minorities, decentralisation and the promotion of cultural heritage.

The Council of Europe is more important today than ever before, because through its activities it contributed to implementing the many standards it shares with the European Union. Through our active participation in those activities, Croatia has been a living example of the Council of Europe’s transformative power, especially in the light of the efforts made on our path to joining the European Union. I would like to reiterate Croatia’s full support for, and commitment to, the work of the Council of Europe. Its unique role of protecting and promoting the highest European values – democracy, human rights and the rule of law – must not be compromised in any circumstances. That is where the primary responsibility of member States lies. We must uphold those fundamental principles in order to preserve the reputation of our Organisation. Croatia is all the more committed to those principles and democratic values, for my fellow citizens have paid a heavy price defending them.

Our Organisation faces major challenges, and against that backdrop Croatia fully supports the need to reform the Council of Europe and define a clear and long-term strategy and outlook. It is extremely important to achieve greater unity by better marrying our efforts to regain our citizens’ trust in our work. The Council of Europe has established an effective monitoring mechanism for human rights standards, democracy and the rule of law. Such monitoring will be of the essence if we are to pinpoint non-compliance and address our recommendations to member States. It is therefore of the utmost importance that we preserve those monitoring mechanisms. Furthermore, the interactions and synergies between the main bodies of the Council of Europe could be improved. I believe that member States are duty-bound to work more actively with the Secretariat and the Parliamentary Assembly in order to make the work of the Council of Europe more effective.

(The speaker continued in English.)

Ladies and gentlemen, the European Convention on Human Rights system – one of our most significant mechanisms – has made a tremendous contribution to the protection and promotion of human rights and the rule of law in Europe. We express our deep commitment to the Convention and the obligations under it, as well as to the right of individual application to the Court as a key feature of the system. Full national implementation of the Convention is a prerequisite for strengthening the Court’s subsidiary role. We, as the States party to the Convention, have agreed to abide by the Court’s judgments. Moreover, judgments being binding and executed is pivotal to the credibility of the Organisation. I strongly believe that there is no other way to reinforce our judicial system’s efficiency.

We need to work jointly to ensure that we have a shared understanding of the law and its implementation. There should be a constructive and continuous dialogue among States, and between national and European levels, respecting the independence of the Court and the binding character of its judgments. The reform process has led to significant developments and improvements in the Convention system. Croatia welcomes the progress made so far and recognises the need for further reforms to strengthen the authority of the Court, its case law and its judges; those are central challenges ahead of us. I would like to express my satisfaction that the State parties express their commitment to undertake efforts towards setting up a system for addressing Convention violations promptly and effectively.

With regard to the caseload, which is one of the major challenges facing the Convention system, it is crucially important that we introduce measures aimed at reducing the backlog. That could be done by improving the Court’s working methods and co-operation of all the actors involved, and by securing sufficient funds. It is of the utmost importance that all member States meet their obligations as members of the Organisation, including the financial obligations. It is our right and duty to respond appropriately to cases of non-compliance. Otherwise the Organisation will lose credibility and public trust, which holds to these principles.

Croatia welcomes the fact that the Parliamentary Assembly is seeking to restore its credibility, and that it has taken concrete actions to establish an environment of zero tolerance of corruption of any type. Corruption is a socially unacceptable phenomenon that directly jeopardises human rights, destroys morale and endangers the stability and economic achievement of the State – and in this case, the credibility of the Parliamentary Assembly and of the Council of Europe in general. It is therefore necessary to build awareness of the need continuously to monitor the efficiency of specific solutions. The fight against corruption is strongly supported by Croatia as a fundamental prerequisite for the development of an open, democratic and advancing society.

That is why we decided to address this negative phenomenon and define the fight against corruption as one of the key priorities of our chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers. In co-operation with the Group of States against corruption – GRECO – we are organising a ministerial conference, to be called “Strengthening transparency and responsibility aimed at prevention of corruption”, which will be held in Croatia in October. Its aim will be to highlight the importance of better co-operation and combined efforts between relevance national anti-corruption bodies in the fight against this especially widespread phenomenon.

Let me share with you a few words about the Croatian Parliament’s recent ratification of the Council of Europe’s Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – the Istanbul Convention. We have joined the group of 30 countries that have already acceded to that important international instrument. The lesson we have learnt is that this noble convention, with its important goal of protecting women and children, has been put in the context of a wider ideological debate that completely derails the public debate about the issue at member State level. Croatia has endured and persevered in ratifying the convention, especially under the leadership of my government, and we have done so in the full conviction that we are doing a good thing for our society, and for the protection of women against violence.

However, the entire Organisation should find a common solution to clarify what the convention is about. It is useful to neither the Organisation nor the convention’s noble goals to have an amalgam of debates that contribute to divisions in society, with the focus and the spotlight on issues that are unrelated to the substance. I therefore appeal to you, Madam President, the Secretary General and my colleagues who will lead the Committee of Ministers, to use our recent experience in Croatia as a model of how not only to draft a solid interpretative statement but to clarify as an Organisation the actual objectives of the convention. I will gladly share that experience with all those who plan to embark on the ratification process.

Let me say a few words about the countries that neighbour Croatia, our friends from south-east Europe. Many of you are present here representing your parliaments. As was said clearly by Ms Maury Pasquier, we, the most recent member of the European Union – still with fresh experience of European Union accession – would like to use the forum of the Council of Europe as another opportunity to support our neighbours in their reform processes and efforts.

We welcome the recent European Commission report on the countries of the western Balkans. We supported the Bulgarian European Union presidency in organising the summit of the European Union and western Balkans countries in Sofia in May. I committed to organise another Zagreb Summit, because the one that took place 18 years ago, back in 2000, opened up a European perspective for all the countries of south-east Europe. In 2020, during our presidency of the European Union, we shall carry that out in the conviction that such a conference should be periodic, so as to keep the issue of enlargement and those countries on the agenda of European leaders.

We welcome the recent agreement between our friends in Skopje and in Athens on the Macedonia name issue. We hope that it will benefit our friends in being able to open negotiations for European Union accession, and that it will encourage NATO members to give the invitation to join NATO. In our view, that has been long overdue and long deserved.

We put particular focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina, which deserves the attention of the entire international community given its history and the responsibility of all of us to support the country’s European reform agenda, especially because of the cohesive nature of the European integration process and its role as a generator of prosperity and reform. From that point of view, we expect further progress after the October elections. We shall take a similar stance vis-à-vis all the countries of the region, in good faith and as a good neighbour.

I take this opportunity to greet my friends from Ukraine, a country I have held close to my heart since my time as a member of the European Parliament. We shall support your territorial integrity and your efforts with your European-orientated reforms. I therefore very much welcome tomorrow’s conference in support of your efforts, which will take place in Denmark.

To say a few words on an issue critical to the European continent – illegal migration – we all know how much the big migration and refugee crisis impacted on European politics and the national politics of our member States. During the 2015 and 2016 crisis, refugees arrived by a variety of routes. Whether those are western, central or eastern Mediterranean, this item will remain on our political agenda for many years to come. Given the demographic trends of the countries of Africa, the Middle East and further afield, their poverty, instability, wars and other issues can only lead large parts of their populations to flee their homes and to look for a better future, many in the countries of Europe.

We all need to look at that jointly, because only a European solution will bring a positive result. We need to be able to share the burden of responsibility and solidarity adequately, but at the same time to be persistent about forging partnerships with non-European countries so as to assist them in alleviating the pressures and solving the problem outside the borders of the European home.

Another agenda item is to protect the external borders. My country has two immediate European objectives: to join the Schengen zone, the criteria for which we are fulfilling day by day; and to join the eurozone. We want a non-porous and respected external border for the European Union, and to find a common solution to the varied legislation on the internal issues of migration through revision of the Dublin Regulation.

The process has had ramifications at the national level – the rise of populism, leading to criticism of the European project and of what has been built so carefully over the past 70 years – and we should all learn the lessons and find strength, devising the right policies that can be supported by our people and citizens. In that way we can regain confidence in the ability of the European institutions to deliver solutions and not fall into the simplistic trap of populism, with the change in the tone of rhetoric that has been clear over the past three years.

(The speaker continued in French.)

In conclusion, since the mid-1990s the Council of Europe has played a key role for Croatia in helping us to achieve European integration. I hope, too, that we can do the same for other countries, helping them along this way. As it was for Croatia, European integration is the best possible incentive for the implementation of economic and political reforms, and those are synonymous with accelerated development and political stability, which are preconditions for prosperity. The first condition necessary to achieving that, however, is the strengthening of democratic values, the rule of law and human rights, in which the Council of Europe is invaluable.

I take this opportunity to assure you all of Croatia’s full support for the work of the Parliamentary Assembly, both now and in the future. More specifically, we support the Council of Europe’s work in general. The Croatian Parliament has already had the opportunity to host some of you during meetings of the Standing Committee, and later this year a conference dedicated to security in the Mediterranean will take place in Dubrovnik. That will be an opportunity for many of you to become better acquainted with my country and to see how firmly Croatia stands behind the values and goals of this Organisation, which is the most mature and venerable one involved in building Europe.