Davor Ivo Stier (Croatian pronunciation: [dâvor ǐːvo ʃtîːr]; born 6 January 1972) is a Croatian-Argentine politician and diplomat serving as member of the European Parliament since July 2024, having previously served from 2013 to 2016. He was a member of the Croatian Parliament in multiple terms, as well as the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia from 2016 to 2017.[1][2]
Davor Ivo Stier | |
---|---|
Member of the European Parliament | |
Assumed office 16 July 2024 | |
Constituency | Croatia |
In office 1 July 2013 – 12 October 2016 | |
Constituency | Croatia |
Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia | |
In office 19 October 2016 – 19 June 2017 | |
Prime Minister | Andrej Plenković |
Preceded by | Božo Petrov |
Succeeded by | Marija Pejčinović Burić |
Minister of Foreign and European Affairs | |
In office 19 October 2016 – 19 June 2017 | |
Prime Minister | Andrej Plenković |
Preceded by | Miro Kovač |
Succeeded by | Marija Pejčinović Burić |
Personal details | |
Born | Buenos Aires, Argentina | 6 January 1972
Political party | Croatian Democratic Union |
Alma mater | Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina |
Awards | Order of Duke Branimir (2014) |
Family and studies
editStier was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina[3] and lived in the middle-class Flores district (the same of Pope Francis)[4] in a Croatian expatriate family originating from Samobor.[3] His paternal grandfather Ivan Stier was an Ustaše colonel and assistant to Vjekoslav Luburić who escaped to South America after World War II.[5] His maternal grandfather, Milorad Lukač, was one of the leading emigrant politicians of the Croatian Peasant Party. Stier's father was a doctor and his mother Marija Lukač was a university professor.
Stier came to Croatia for the first time in 1990 at 18 as part of the Croatian Heritage Foundation program, and for the second time three weeks before the fall of Vukovar as a journalist for the Argentine newspaper El Cronista and Radio America. He returned to Argentina in February 1992, where he graduated in Political Science and International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina, and later on in journalism.[5]
Political career
editStier returned to Croatia in 1996 at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, after which he worked in the Croatian embassies in Washington and Brussels, and by 2009 was foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.[5]
At the 2011 parliamentary elections, Stier was elected a member of the Croatian Parliament.[6] He became a member of the Interparliamentary Cooperation Committee and the Committee for European Integration, and was appointed Vice-Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee. He was also nominated a member of the Croatian Parliament delegation at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Croatian Parliament delegation at the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the Republic of Croatia.[7]
Stier was one of the closest associates of Jadranka Kosor and her adviser and delegate for Euro-Atlantic cooperation. During the Slovenian-Croatian diplomatic freeze, Stier was the main participant in the behind-the scenes diplomacy effort and mediator between Kosor and the Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor.[5] In the May 2012 HDZ leadership contest, Stier supported Tomislav Karamarko[8] but was later opposed to the disciplinary proceedings against Jadranka Kosor in February 2013, after the party decided to sanction her because of her appearances in the media.[9]
In September 2012, Stier asked the Croatian government to desist from ratification of the state border dispute between Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, claiming that in so doing Croatia would have agreed to participate in blackmail politics and linked European Union membership to border issues. He accused Bosnia and Herzegovina's Transport Minister Damir Hadzic of blackmailing the Croatian government by stating that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not allow the construction of the Peljesac bridge unless Croatia ratified the border agreement.[10]
In April 2013, Stier said that the prerequisite for Bosnia and Herzegovina to enter the European Union would be the institutional equality of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[11]
Two months later, in June, Stier stated that "Croatia must strongly take up the issue of the constituency of the Croatian people in Bosnia and Herzegovina not only on paper but also in practice." He estimated that the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was "a de facto Bosniak entity" and announced the possibility of Bosnia and Herzegovina being reformed according to the Belgian model. He also said that Croatia would use Croatia's accession to the European Union to resolve the Croat issue in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[12]
Following Croatia's EU accession, in the first elections to the European Parliament in Croatia in April 2013, Stier won 14 005 votes on the list of the HDZ coalition that was composed of HSP AS and BUZ. With 5.75% of votes cast, he became one of the first Members of the European Parliament from Croatia.[13][14] At the session of the European Parliament's Foreign Policy Committee in July 2013, Stier requested that the European Union more strongly support the right of the Croatian people in BiH to equality with other constituent peoples and thus internationalized the "Croatian issue" in BiH. In an interview forVečernji list in the same month, Stier stated that Croats in BiH are an indispensable and decisive factor in the Europeanization of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while the role of the European Union in Bosnia and Herzegovina is crucial and that cooperation with Russia and Turkey is welcome.[15]
In the second election for the European Parliament in Croatia in May 2014, Stier again won a 26,432-vote mandate as a candidate on the list of HDZ's coalition composed of HSS, HSP AS, BUZ, ZDS and HDS.[16]
In 2015, Stier published the book A New Croatian Paradigm: an Essay on Social Integration and Development (Nova hrvatska paradigma: ogled o društvenoj integraciji i razvoju)[17][18]
Stier was Deputy Prime Minister of Croatia and the 13th Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the Cabinet of Andrej Plenković from 19 October 2016 until his resignation on 19 June 2017. He left the cabinet after the collapse of the HDZ-Most coalition and the new coalition with the liberal HNS party.[19]
Stier was a member of the Croatian Parliament in the 10th and 11th composition and the chairman of the EPP Group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, as well as the chairman of Croatia's delegation. In the 2024 European Parliament election in Croatia, Stier was elected MEP and is set to return to the European Parliament.[1][20]
Personal life
editStier lives in Samobor with his wife and three children.[21]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b Srzić, Ante (10 June 2024). "Stier: Evo što je sada ključno za Hrvatsku unutar EU-a". tportal.hr (in Croatian). Tportal. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Stier, Davor Ivo". sabor.hr. Croatian Parliament. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ a b "Davor Ivo Stier". TIM press. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ Veljković, Sandra (15 March 2013). "Davor Stier: Papa Franjo iz mog je kvarta Flores". Večernji list. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ a b c d "I'm leading us to the EU through quiet diplomacy". Nacional. 13 July 2010. Archived from the original on 31 March 2014. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ "Davor Ivo Stier, životopis" (in Croatian). 8 April 2013. Archived from the original on 7 August 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
- ^ "Davor Ivo Stier". Hrvatski sabor. Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "Karamarka žele Hebrang, Stier, Jarnjak, Kalmeta i Jandroković". 24sata. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "Stegovni postupak protiv Jadranke Kosor, protiv bili Prgomet i Stier". Večernji list. 21 February 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "Davor Ivo Stier: BiH se usudila ucijeniti hrvatsku Vladu". Bljesak.info. 15 September 2012. Archived from the original on 16 September 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ S., Z (16 April 2013). "Stier: Ravnopravnost Hrvata uvjet je za europski put". Bljesak.info. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
- ^ Perica, Silvana (26 June 2013). "Uređenje Bosne i Hercegovine: Traži se belgijski model". Večernji list. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ "Konačni rezultati EU izbora!". Dnevnik Nove TV. 15 April 2013. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
- ^ Izbori članova u Europski parlament iz Republike Hrvatske. Državno izborno povjerenstvo Republike Hrvatske, 15. travnja 2013. Pristupljeno 30. svibnja 2014.
- ^ Krešić, Zoran (6 July 2013). "Bez Hrvata neće biti niti europske BiH". Retrieved 6 July 2013.
- ^ Izbori članova u Europski parlament iz Republike Hrvatske Archived 2014-05-28 at the Wayback Machine. Državno izborno povjerenstvo Republike Hrvatske, 26. svibnja 2014. Pristupljeno 30. svibnja 2014.
- ^ Davor Ivo Stier, Nova hrvatska paradigma: ogled o društvenoj integraciji i razvoju, TIM press, Zagreb, 2015., ISBN 9789538075124, Nova hrvatska paradigma Archived 2017-05-20 at the Wayback Machine, www.tim-press.hr, pristupljeno 8. rujna 2016.
- ^ "A New Croatian Paradigm - TIM press".
- ^ "Foreign Minister Stier Resigns". Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
- ^ "Mr Davor Ivo STIER (Croatia, EPP/CD)". pace.coe.int. PACE. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Novi ministar vanjskih poslova živio je gdje i papa Franjo, a intervjuirao je Franju Tuđmana".