Prime Ministers of Croatia

Newly-elected President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen is on a working visit to Croatia.

She will talk with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković  about the priorities of the upcoming Croatian presidency of the EU Council, the negotiations on the multiannual financial framework, and Croatia's aspirations for membership of the Schengen area and the euro area.

Uncertainty

Few European countries have seen the same levels of combined economic and political turmoil as Greece over the last decade. Thankfully, Greece seems to be coming out of the turbulent years, but as it does so, will its economy be able to accelerate forward or remain stuck in limbo?

Then a parliamentary session will be convened to confirm the election of new ministers.

The former manager of the Croatian national football team, Miroslav Ciro Blazevic, has surprised and shocked many in Croatia by appearing in a video made for the European elections by the Independent Democratic Serbian Party, SDSS, a party representing Croatia's Serbian minority.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the top candidate of the centrist European People's Party, EPP, for the post of European Commission President, Manfred Weber, will participate in the central election conference of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, on Saturday in Zagreb.

Plenkovic has developed a strategy of silence on many of the scandals that have embroiled his own ministers and party colleagues, to good effect, Mamic said.

"If you look at his position, this is effective and efficient communication," she said. "He gives short answers, because obviously the outcome of all these cases could go in any direction."

A host of parties on the right and left of Croatia's political spectrum are using European Parliament elections in May as a way to gain exposure.

The Adriatic city of Dubrovnik, Croatia's best-known tourist destination, on Thursday and Friday will host the 16 + 1 summit, a Chinese initiative to strengthen business ties between China and 16 countries from Central and Eastern Europe.

The 19th anniversary of the death of Croatia's first President, Franjo Tudjman, was marked on Monday by the unveiling of a more than four-metre-high monument in Zagreb, near the National University Library and the Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall.

On his first visit to Croatia in several years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic had agreed on the need to resolve the thorny dispute over ownership of the Croatian energy company INA.

"I came to change this unnatural situation and return our relations to the normal track," Orban told the press conference on Monday.