Croatian Member of European Parliament has been appointed as a standing rapporteur in Association Parliamentary Committee Delegation for relations with the United States.
This duty involves Picula who will, on behalf of European Parliament during this mandate, cover all the topics related to collaboration of European Union and United States of America, and precisely in this alliance he will represent European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and his Socialists and Democrats Group in the European Parliament.
Some of the priority topics that Picula will prompt shall refer to equality among citizens in country members of European Union and United States of America, which in this case is closely related to the question of abolition of visa requirements for travelling in the USA, in addition to elimination of double taxation.
My colleagues in the EP have shown me a great deal of respect with this assignment, considering that the relations with the USA are one of the most important subjects of this mandate. Observing specific momentum in that country, that is a wave of justified protests against racist violence that have inundated USA, the police brutality against protesters and media, testifies about endangerment of democratic standards in that country and furthermore they prove that it is essential to approach it with due attention, specially when the EU itself is struggling with some anti-democratic forces within its rows, Picula commented.
Picula’s commitments to this duty will also involve drafting all the reports connected with the USA, which the Committee on Foreign Affairs of European Parliament decides to implement during this mandate. Speaking of a wider context of correlations between the United States of America and European Union, Picula highlighted: We are witnesses of an enormous increase in uncertainty of international relations, almost imperial ambitions of geopolitical adversaries of the European Union. These are countries that are not promoting democratic standards and the rule of law. With an emerging economic crisis as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic, and precarious future of old partnerships, European Union must find its foreign-policy passage towards reconciliation of Union’s internal relations and articulate a new form of smart power, which is crucial for our collective European future.
Economic, political and relations connected with safety matters between European Union and United States of America have entered an unprecedented period in the history of European Union that has been lasting for sixty years, above all it is due to unpredictability of actions of the current American administration and the ambiguous result of presidential elections from November. The future of a multilateral order is also dubious, as a result of pressure from strong geopolitical stakeholders which demands a new perspective of the European Union.
