"The main topics to be discussed by the European Council today are how to make sure the seven-year European budget, which we negotiated about and which was prepared in circumstances entirely different from the current ones, becomes a key instrument of the member-states' economic recovery," Plenkovic told reporters ahead of a meeting of the European Council.
"We want the European Commission... to devise a new, updated draft to serve as the basis for a budget that will be especially visible and used in the first years of the next financial perspective," Plenkovic said, adding that Croatia and other countries would need the EU's financial support in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
At a video conference on Thursday, leaders of the 27 EU member-countries will try to bring closer their positions on how to start economic recovery after the coronavirus pandemic and they will entrust the European Commission with preparing a detailed proposal.
"As for the recovery plan... we expect an inclusive approach for all member-states, both those that are and those that are not euro area members," Plenkovic said when asked if Croatia saw the recovery fund as an integral part of the EU's multiannual budget or a separate financial instrument and if it supported financing recovery with loans or with grants, as proposed, for example, by Italy and Spain.