Tonino Picula (born 31 August 1961) is a Croatian politician currently serving his third term as a Member of the European Parliament for Croatia, having successfully run in 2013, 2014, and 2019 European elections. He got involved in politics in the early 1990s and had served four consecutive terms as a member of the Croatian Parliament, having been elected in 2000, 2003, 2007, and 2011 parliamentary elections as a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2003 under prime minister Ivica Račan, and as mayor of Velika Gorica from 2005 to 2009.
Picula is a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) and sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament.
Early life and education
Picula was born in Mali Lošinj and completed both primary and secondary education in Šibenik, Dalmatia. He graduated sociology at Faculty of humanities and social sciences, University of Zagreb.
Political career
Career in national politics
After the 2000 parliamentary elections in which SDP, under Ivica Račan, won in a broad coalition, Picula was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and served a full term until 2003. During his term in office, Croatia had several important foreign-relation successes, including becoming a candidate for NATO and the European Union and joining World Trade Organization. He signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement on behalf of Croatian government, and submitted the country's application for membership in the EU. After years of negotiations, disagreements and delays he also signed the Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on behalf of Croatia.
During local elections in 2005, he was elected mayor of Velika Gorica. He also led the SDP branch in Velika Gorica from 1997 to 2000.
Member of the European Parliament, 2013–present
On 1 April 2012, as part of preparations for Croatia's full EU membership, Sabor appointed Picula to the European Parliament as one of the 12 "observer" members from Croatia. At the first Croatian European Parliament elections in 2013, he was elected to the remainder of the Parliament's 2009–2014 term, and then again to two full terms in 2014 and 2019.
Foreign Policy
Picula has been a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) since 2013 where he currently serves as a senior member responsible for coordinating the work of the Socialists and Democrats in the Committee. He is a substitute member of the Delegation for relations with the United States of America (D-US), and as such, in June 2020, had been appointed the European Parliament’s first standing rapporteur for relations with the USA.
Picula has been a strong proponent of the EU enlargement, and has held it is EU’s most successful policy and most powerful tool for promoting democracy, prosperity and peace. In November 2019, AFET appointed him to the position of the Rapporteur for Recommendations on the Western Balkans ahead of the May 2020 Summit in Zagreb. The key recommendations of the Report were to ensure that the improved negotiation methodology has the full EU membership as its ultimate goal and that the EU provides clear and predictable rules and criteria and applies them consistently, thereby restoring its credibility. His dedication to EU – Western Balkans relations is also reflected in his memberships in the Delegation for relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo (DSEE) as well as in the Delegation for relations with Serbia. In 2019 he was named Co-Rapporteur for IPA III Financial Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance and Standing Rapporteur on Montenegro. As of January 2020 he is also the Chairman of the Working Group for the Western Balkans, one of the five AFET working groups.
In the current 9th parliamentary term, he was a substitute member in the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) in the first half of the term, and a full member of the then newly founded Special Committee on Foreign Interference in all Democratic Processes in the European Union, including Disinformation, and the Delegation to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly (PA).