CGTN Europe spoke to Andrej Plenković, the Croatian Prime Minister at the World Economic Forum in Davos
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00:00Juliette Mann spoke to the Croatian Prime Minister about the outlook for the EU in 2025.
00:06We had an unprecedented situation. I asked my colleagues the other day,
00:10do we remember a moment when within a few weeks you had a vote of no confidence in Paris
00:16and a vote of no confidence in Berlin go through?
00:20I don't remember that. So the axis needs to be strengthened
00:23and therefore I think that after the German elections we will have more stability
00:28and that the axis and the engine, which is the Franco-German partnership,
00:33takes the economic development into a better direction than it was before.
00:38We are managing well together with Malta and Cyprus.
00:41We are among those countries who have a high GDP growth.
00:44Last year it was 3.6% in Croatia, which is very good,
00:48compared to the average of the EU and the Eurozone, which is around 1% or even lower.
00:54Where do you see the direction of travel when it comes to trade?
00:58Well, this is the key issue. It's been a key issue between the European Union and China.
01:02It has become a key issue between the United States and China.
01:05The first signals are, let's say, a sign of warning in terms of greater protectionism.
01:13Imposition of tariffs, no level playing field, but making a more inward-looking approach
01:20and protecting our own economic operators, which can be, of course, justified and logical
01:25if there is such a situation.
01:27But I think we need to use the mechanisms that are at our disposal.
01:30One is the WTO, which is very important.
01:33We need to be open but pragmatic at the same time,
01:37and I think this will be the frame of the approach to cooperation,
01:41but we need to see a little bit more what are the details being laid out coming from Washington
01:46and also to see what is happening in China.