Ambassador of BiH to Italy Željana Zovko to be a representative in the European Parliament for Croatia

After the sudden withdrawal of the Pravaš Ivan Tepeš from engagement in the European Parliament, the next representative from the list who should represent Croatia in the EP is Željana Zovko from HDZ of Bosnia and Herzegovina, who has been the ambassador of that country to Italy since last year, writes Index.hr, reports the Patria News Agency.

Željana Zovko, born in Mostar, has a rich diplomatic career behind her. On the joint list of the Homeland Coalition in the 2014 European Parliament elections, Zovko was in ninth place as a representative of the diaspora, and she won 2392 votes, which is three times more than Tepeš.

After Andrej Plenković and Davor Ivo Stier resigned from their positions as MEPs due to their government roles, space opened up for two new individuals. The first in line is HDZ member Ivica Tolić, who enters as Plenković's replacement, while Tepeš was supposed to be Stier's. However, although he experienced a debacle in the elections for the Parliament, where he even held the position of vice-president in the previous term, Tepeš, surprisingly easily, gave up the well-paid position in the European Parliament with the explanation that he wants to live in Croatia.

This opened up space for Željana Zovko, a French language professor, who began working in the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999, and from 2004 to 2008 she was the ambassador of BiH to France. From 2008 to 2011, she was the ambassador to Spain. She then returned to BiH, where she worked as a foreign policy advisor for three years, before taking over the duties of ambassador to Italy again last year.