After the meeting of Heads of Government of the Member States of the European Union held in Brussels on 12 February, at the Mini Plenary Session of the European Parliament chaired by President Martin Schulz, the European Council President Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jean - Claude Juncker presented the conclusions of the meeting representatives, which afterwards led to an interesting discussion.
˝We are happy that the presidents of all three institutions are in the Parliament today, and we are particularly happy that we managed to achieve a unified position of the institutions when it comes to anti-terrorist measures with an emphasis on the European Passenger Name Record (PNR) system. Human life is at the center of all our policies and it is the most important value, so we can not it be harmed by inhuman ideologies that have only one name - terrorism and violence,˝ said Head of the Croatian EPP Delegation in the European Parliament Dubravka Šuica.
The meeting was dominated by subjects from the Ukraine to Greece to Libya, events in Paris and Copenhagen, then the Energy, Economic and Monetary Union and the Investment Plan for Europe that can be divided into two groups; those that create problems and those that offer solutions.
˝It is necessary to achieve a unified Europe, especially if we bear in mind that Putin's goal is to divide Europe, it is clear that our goal must be unity and we can only deal with these difficult challenges through our proactive strategy,˝ stressed MEP Dubravka Šuica.
˝Alongside unity, it is necessary to know how to implement all these measures on the ground that we did not succeed with untilk now, and this is why we are doing everything so that negotiations about offering assistance to Greece succeed, that we maintain a ceasefire in the Ukraine, that we prevent new terrorist attacks and that we reduce the wave of immigrants in the south,˝ concluded the two presidents, Tusk and Juncker.
Stronger controls of the external borders of the Schengen area are part of the measures to combat terrorism however, President Juncker made it clear that the Schengen area is part of the solution, not the problem. Šuica believes that Croatia, as well as Bulgaria and Romania, should not be held hostage by the new measures and they that the accession of these countries to the Schengen area should not be prolonged due to the increased control of external borders, rather just the opposite, they should be expanded as soon as possible.
