After European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović took over the position of head of the negotiation delegation with the EU and Vladimir Drobnjak, Ambassador of the Croatian Mission before the UN in New York, was made chief negotiator, the situation surrounding Croatia’s negotiations with the EU has finally been cleared up. With the consensus of all the parliamentary parties, the final form of the negotiation team will be concluded in the next two weeks, and Croatia’s negotiation position will be precisely defined. Already at this time, it is certain that the negotiators will visit all the Member States of the EU as part of the negotiation process, which officially begins on 17 March 2005.

Negotiation Team The core of the negotiation team, alongside leader of the Croatian negotiation delegation Kolinda Grabar Kitarović and chief negotiator Vladimir Drobnjak, should have an addition 12 members. Of those, two are to be deputies of the chief negotiator for legal and economic issues, and one is to be the delegation secretary, however, who will fill these positions has not yet been determined. The remaining nine members will be distributed according to the following areas of specialization: a) transport and telecommunications, b) customs, taxes, money, c) judiciary and home affairs, e) fishing and agriculture, f) internal markets, g) programs and regional policies, h) foreign policy and security; and another two members to be distributed according to chapters and requirements.This outcome of events in appointing the leaders of the negotiation team, which also marked Premier Ivo Sanader’s backing away from his intention to be head of the negotiation delegation. According to Nacional sources from the opposition, this will likely also mean that Ivica Račan will back away from his intention to run the Nacional board for monitoring the negotiations. Instead, that duty will be handed over to Neven Mimica, former European Integrations Minister, a professional person well respected in European circles and in Brussels.

While this decision by Ivo Sanader to appoint Drobnjak as chief negotiator was made due to the fact that this is a man with a wealth of negotiating experience and a professional who lead the Croatian mission in Brussels at the time when the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU was signed in October 2001, in his first media appearance, Drobnjak particularly stressed that the success of his future mission is exceptionally tied to a consensus in the Croatian Parliament. It is no doubt that his appointment to this position was also a matter of consensus among all the parties, as he is a non-partisan and professional person.

Drobnjak also received great support from the opposition circles and his name was never questioned. The greatest problem was whether or not Drobnjak would accept the position, which implies his return to Zagreb after only a year and a half in New York, at virtually the halfway mark of his mandate.

His family and 20 year old son have remained in New York, where his wife Marija has also achieved a very successful scientific career in the laboratory of the well known New York hospital Sloan-Kettering, where she participates in serious research projects in the battle against cancer. She is also a well known lecturer and has participated in international medical congresses on that topic.

However, after a telephone conversation with Premier Sanader, he did not spend too much time thinking and he accepted this return to Zagreb. One of the good elements, stressed by those who support his appointment, is the fact that he is a professional diplomat.

Vladimir Drobnjak was born in Zagreb in 1956, and he entered diplomatic waters after many years in journalism. He was a foreign correspondent in New York for Vjesnik and Večernji List, and during a visit to that city and the UN headquarters in 1992, he was discovered by former Foreign Minister Mate Granic. In recalling those times, Granic stated that following the ECOSOC session, he had lunch with Drobnjak on the fifth floor of the UN building and proposed that he join the Croatian diplomatic core, as he was so impressed with Drobnjak’s knowledge of the activities of the United Nations.

Drobnjak is a lawyer from an esteemed medical family. His father, Petar Drobnjak, is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagreb, he was head of the maternity ward at Petrova bolnica, founder of the Centre for Female Reproduction and Infertility and editor of the Lijecnicki vjesnik. Medical circles consider him to be a pioneer of endocrinological gynecology.

Vladimir Drobnjak began working in the largest publishing company in Croatia – Vjesnik right after his graduation from the Faculty of Law. He advanced quickly. By 1984 he had become editor of the city column, and soon afterwards was moved to the foreign policy column. In the late 1980s, he became editor of the Sunday edition. However, the crown in his career came in 1988 when he was made Vjesnik’s correspondent in New York.

Up until that point, it was unthinkable that someone not in the Communist party could receive such a position. This was the time when the party yoke began to weaken in Zagreb, and Drobnjak was among the first to feel the favour of the democratic winds that were blowing. After all this, he moved from his journalist’s office in the UN to the Croatian Embassy.

In 2000, eight years after joining Croatian diplomacy, Ivica Račan’s coalition government sent him from his post as assistant Foreign Minister for multilateralism to the most demanding ambassador’s post – in Brussels. This was the time when the negotiations with the EU on the Stabilization and Association Agreement were under preparation. When he went to Brussels, this was the number one ambassador’s spot in the entire Croatian diplomatic network.

Prior to his departure in 2000, as assistant Foreign Minister, Drobnjak successfully handled the greatest international political gathering ever to be held in Zagreb – the Zagreb Summit. In his closing document, there was the important clause concerning “individual accession”, which virtually opened the door to new members of the EU, dependent only upon their individual merits and accomplishments.

This was following one of the key arguments for pulling Croatia out of the Balkan package, which implied that Croatia would have to wait for the remaining states from the former Yugoslavia to fulfill all the criteria for accession into the EU. Drobnjak had gained a wealth of negotiating experience while working for the Croatian Mission before the UN in New York, under Ambassador Mario Nobilo.

In looking back to those times, one of his associates from that period, Vitomir Miles Raguž, today a banker in Vienna, stressed several key moments while defined Drobnjak as the backbone of the mission and a good bureaucrat, while set him aside as a successful diplomat. In particular, he stressed Drobnjak’s contribution to the UN General Assembly Resolution 49/43, passed almost unanimously in 1994, with only four votes against, in which the then UNPA zone in Croatia was defined for the first time as occupied Croatian state territory, which created the solid international legal foundation for the military operation Storm.

Raguž also recalled Drobnjak’s statement for Reuters in New York following the beginning of Operation Storm. Drobnjak emphasized that Croatia was not a problem in the region, but instead should be looked upon as a solution for the region which, according to Raguz, has today proved to be a visionary assessment. Afterwards, the Washington Post began to also use this statement, only for it to later spread into the official circles of the United Nations itself.

Finally, Drobnjak’s key contribution was recognizable in the Resolution of the Köln Summit of the Stability Pact in 1999, when it was clearly defined that the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was not subject to automatic succession status, meaning that unlike the remaining countries which arose from the breakdown of Yugoslavia, there was no need to submit an application for membership to international organizations. Though that paragraph later did not restrict Belgrade’s access to international organizations and institutions, it was valuable in later negotiations concerning the division of the assets of the former federal state.

Alongside these biographical details, which have made him one of the most successful diplomats in the Foreign Ministry, Drobnjak also received a rare international recognition during the time he was Ambassador in the Mission before the EU in Brussels. He was virtually the only person from the former Yugoslav states to have an important role in the Stability Pact team under Erhard Busek.

After taking his post as Ambassador in Brussels at the end of 2001, he was the only diplomat form the former Yugoslavia to hold a significant position within the Stability Pact. He was chairman of the Third Working Table of the Stability Pact, which dealt with security issues in the region. In July 2003, Drobnjak was again sent to New York as Ambassador before the UN.

In his first public appearance, he clearly insisted that there must be a consensus of all the political parties in Croatia concerning the country’s path towards the EU. However, as those from his future environment stress, Drobnjak, who knows all the elements of the job, including the specific terminology which marks the European administration, will have the greatest problem in the short time frame in which he must round up the talks. Defining 2007 as the final deadline to complete this task is now a great burden to his negotiating position.

In recalling key moments from Drobnjak’s career, Granic in particular stressed that it was Drobnjak who initiated the passing of a Parliamentary Declaration, which enabled Račan’s government in early 2001 to initiate the process of Croatia’s accession into the EU. During his 2002 visit to Brussels, when he was president of the parliamentary board for European integration, Drobnjak and his deputy in the embassy, Andrej Plenković, told Granic that it would be positive for the Parliament to pass a declaration on Croatia’s intention to enter into the EU.

Once he informed the public of this idea, Granic passed the message on to Ivo Sanader, who was still in the opposition at that time. During the visit of Otto von Hapsburg to Zagreb, Sanader accepted this idea, and the Parliamentary Resolution was passed in December 2002. Following this, Račan’s government began the procedure for Croatia’s accession into the European Union in January 2003.

The Croatian House in Brussels
In the great preparations of the Croatian diplomacy for the upcoming tasks related to Croatia’s accession to the European Union, the Croatian government has decided to purchase a spacious house in Brussels of 5000 square metres which, according to unofficial sources, will cost over 10 million euro. The sale contract has not yet been signed, however, the Public Relations Office claims that this deal is more than certain.
This would then be home to two Croatian embassies – the Embassy before the European Union and the second accredited embassy at the bilateral level with the Kingdom of Belgium. Considering the expected growth in workload, the Secretariat of the Croatian Foreign Ministry has assessed that up to 100 people could work in this space. Some fifty Croatian diplomats accredited in Brussels will soon be moving into this space.
The idea also exists to offer a portion of the space for lease to other users from Croatia, which will have an interest in opening up their offices in Brussels, such as the Croatian Chamber of Commerce or the Croatian Tourist Board.