Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis meets with Croatia’s State Secretary for European Affairs, Andreja Metelko-Zgombić (Athens, 8 November 2019)

Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis today met with Croatia’s State Secretary for European Affairs, Andreja Metelko-Zgombić. The meeting took place ahead of Croatia’s Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020.

Following their meeting, they made statements to the press, during which Mr. Varvitsiotis underscored the importance of the visit from Croatia’s State Secretary for European Affairs, who, presiding over the General Affairs Council, will be tasked with completing the debate on the critical issue of the new European budget and handling European Union enlargement. “Both issues make up the difficult agenda the Croatian Presidency is taking on in 2020,” Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed.

“I am certain that the personal capabilities of Ms. Metelko and the Croatian government’s commitment to European integration and the deepening of European ties will lead to a successful presidency,” he added.

Beyond European issues, as Mr. Varvitsiotis noted, they discussed bilateral cooperation, following up on the Croatian Prime Minister’s visit to Athens two weeks ago and the bilateral meetings he had with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“We firmly believe that cooperation with the countries in our neighbourhood on bilateral and EU issues is very important. We believe that the expansion of our economic relations will help the two countries’ build multifaceted relations and lead to an overall increase of economic interest in the neighbourhood,” he noted.

At the working luncheon that followed, the two sides discussed the Brexit issue, which will be handled by the Croatian Presidency, and Mr. Varvitsiotis once again raised the issue of Turkey’s illegal conduct.