Croatia's defence sector is making a big contribution to the accomplishment of Croatia's national goal to join the European Union by taking part in operations and combat groups within Europe's common security and defence policy, a state secretary at the Defence Ministry, Pjer Simunovic, said in Brussels on Monday.
He was attending a meeting of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence.
Since the very beginning, Croatia has been making a significant contribution to the European security and defence policy in the most important aspects - the strengthening of defence capabilities and participation in operations - whereby Croatia's defence sector is contributing to Croatia's accession process as well as to the strengthening of the EU's defence capabilities, Simunovic told reporters.
Croatia is participating in the EU's stabilisation operation in Chad with 15 troops, the anti-piracy operation Atalanta off the Somalian coast, in the EULEX mission to Kosovo, and is providing logistic assistance to Operation Althea in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as taking part in EU battle groups.
Simunovic said Croatia was currently participating in a Nordic Battlegroup exercise.
Also, Croatia is getting ready to participate in a Germany-led battlegroup with 250 soldiers in the second half of 2012.
In Brussels, Simunovic met with the deputy director for crisis management and planning at the Council of the EU, Claude-France Arnould, and the chairman of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Security and Defence, Arnaud Danjean.
