Assistant Minister for European Affairs Hrvoje Marušić 10 April met with Head of the European Parliament’s Information Office in Croatia Violeta Simeonova Staničić to discuss the upcoming elections to the European Parliament. The two officials agreed on the importance of MEPs as well as the need for their regular contacts with members of the national parliament and government representatives.
Croatian citizens at the first general elections 14 April will be able to choose their 12 “one-year” representatives to the European Parliament, who will then join the representative body of 500 million citizens. Their term of office begins on the date of Croatia’s EU entry.
The European Parliament was given more power with the Lisbon Treaty and now share legislative responsibility with the Council of the EU in as much as 85 areas (as opposed to the previous 44), including agriculture, fisheries and cohesion policy.