12/10/2022 | 19:14:35 Dear Mister Speaker, Dear Colleagues, Let me start by thanking the rapporteurs for their excellent work. I hope that your visit to Croatia was an informative one, that you gathered all the information that you needed, and indeed your input is very valuable for us. Discussing this report, I want to discuss something else, and that is how to protect migrants but also protect our countries. How should we do it? How is the migratory flow to be controlled? Some colleagues mentioned here that the... 11/10/2022 | 13:07:39 (Undelivered speech, Rules of Procedure Art. 31.2) A clear European perspective for Western Balkans is of outmost importance, now more than even. The war in Ukraine has reminded us how fragile peace is. The Western Balkans region has historically been an exporter of instability, First World War started in the region but there are also many more recent armed conflicts, genocides and atrocities that took place in the region. Balkans has historical been an arena of conflicting interests of... 22/06/2022 | 10:55:11 Thank you, Madam Chair. Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Colleagues, One of my first speeches before this august House was about antisemitism many years ago, when I first joined our organisation. Indeed I revisited that speech and, unfortunately, I must say that I could repeat or just read my old speech that I first delivered in 2016. Unfortunately, we have not really reached the achievements that we should have had in this quite a long time. It is a bit disappointing that in the 21st century... 21/06/2022 | 17:15:24 Thank you. Thank you, Mister Chair. Dear Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have spoken about this before in this Hemicycle, but I think it still is an understatement that the world, and indeed our continent, after the 24 February is not the same and will not be the same in the foreseeable future. Therefore, this report comes timely before us. I wish to thank the rapporteur Mr Bogdan KLICH for doing an excellent work. The world is changing rapidly. With this invasion the whole geopolitical... 28/04/2022 | 12:29:02 Mr Chair, Dear colleagues, In my previous life before politics I was a historian. In history they say that history is deemed to repeat itself if we don't learn from it. Unfortunately, we have learnt nothing as the recent events have shown. For, dear colleagues, does not Mariupol look like Vukovar? Don't Bucha and Irpin look like Sebrenica? Doesn't Kramatorsk look like Sarajevo and the shelling of the Sarajevo market? If you remember those atrocities, unfortunately they do. And unfortunately... 27/04/2022 | 16:36:18 Thank you, Chair. Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, this what is happening in Ukraine as we speak is an outrage. And even this word is an understatement, but I don't have a better word for it in English if I am to remain polite. The scale of loss of life, humanitarian situation, massacres we have seen in Ukraine, it is just outrageous. And I'm being polite because no other word springs to mind that can describe how I feel at the moment when I see those pictures and see these reports. The... 26/04/2022 | 11:41:14 Thank you, Mister President. Once again let me congratulate you on the flawless pronunciation of my name. Dear Colleagues, I think this is a timely and well-written report, although its creation started almost a lifetime ago, 2019 I believe. It's a lifetime ago when it comes to the international circumstances. Even so, three years later, in a much changed world, I think it's a welcomed report. Thanks and congratulations to the rapporteur for a well written report. Allow me to underline the... 15/03/2022 | 17:37:05 Thank you, Mr Chair. Dear colleagues, The war in Ukraine is certainly not the last war we've had in the last 30 years on European soil, but certainly is the biggest. My own country, Croatia, suffered an aggression and war in the early 1990s. Indeed, the rhetoric, the brutality of the aggressor, the intentional targeting of civilians and civilian targets like schools, kindergartens, hospitals, eerily reminds me of what happened in Croatia, because they are very very similar. Dear colleagues... 25/01/2022 | 10:05:22 Thank you, Mister Chair. Lots of greetings from Croatia. First of all, dear colleagues, I think we need to make something clear. What we are debating today in the hemicycle is not categories of citizens. We are talking about human beings, and we are talking about human rights. I find it sad that in the 21st century we have to have these debates, but unfortunately they are necessary. Therefore, I congratulate the rapporteurs for their work and their reports and I hope it is not the last time... 24/01/2022 | 18:53:32 Thank you Mr Chair and congratulations on almost perfectly pronouncing my name, and congratulations on your election of course. Dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, migration is here to stay. As the recent events have shown, it was not an isolated outburst in 2015. Migration is here to stay as the situation on the Eastern borders of the European Union clearly shows. Maybe I take from somebody else, somebody outside the European Union, is what the discussion on the EU asylum pact and...