The discussion focused on the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU and involved Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman, chairman of the parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee Josko Klisovic (SDP) and Sandro Knezovic of the Institute for Development and International Relations.
Klisovic said that the EU was not progressing as fast as its competitors, especially in terms of technological progress and artificial intelligence. "If we want to be influential, we have to react," Klisovic said.
Grlic Radman concurred. "We need to be assertive, with positive solutions and proposals," he said.
Klisovic warned of the EU's slowness in decision making. "In crisis situations, which require a rapid response, China and Russia make their decisions quickly. The EU first needs to meet and talk and then consider."
EU enlargement
Western Balkan countries should be given clearer membership prospects at the Zagreb summit in May and the "historic mistake" of blocking the opening of accession talks with North Macedonia and Albania should be rectified.
The blocking of the two countries last year was "a strategic mistake", given that North Macedonia had shown "the will and capacity to change its own identity," Knezovic said.
Grlic Radman said that all Croatian governments always looked favourably at the EU integration of the Western Balkans.