Brief biographical notes: "European" Andrej Plenković heads HDZ Croatia

Andrej Plenković, the new president of HDZ Croatia, who received the support of 97,823 party members on Sunday evening, was born in 1970 in Zagreb. He finished elementary school at Jordanovac, and high school at the Educational Center for Languages. Alongside his regular schooling, he also studied foreign languages. He actively speaks English, French, and Italian, and understands German, writes the Patria news agency.

He enrolled in the Faculty of Law in 1988 and graduated in 1993 with a thesis on the Institutions of the European Community and the Decision-Making Process. He passed the state professional exam in 1997. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he completed the program for diplomatic advisor and passed the advisor exam at the Diplomatic Academy in 1999. He passed the judicial exam in 2002.

At the Faculty of Law of the University of Zagreb, he completed postgraduate studies in international public and private law. He became a Master of Science in 2002 by defending his master's thesis titled The Subjectivity of the European Union and the Development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

During the 1990s, he worked at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in European affairs. He was also a member of Croatia's negotiation team for the Stabilization and Association Agreement.

From 2002 to 2005, he was the Deputy Head of the Croatian Mission to the European Union in Brussels. From 2005 to 2010, he was the Deputy Ambassador of Croatia to France. From

From April 2010 to December 2011, he served as State Secretary for European Integration in the government of Jadranka Kosor.

He became a member of HDZ Croatia in 2011.

He is a member of the HDZ Delegation in the European People's Party Group in the European Parliament. He was a member of HDZ's Central Committee, the Zagreb City Committee, the Črnomerec Regional Committee, the Jelenovac Local Branch, and the Committee for Foreign and European Affairs. Until his parliamentary mandate was suspended on July 1, 2013, he was a member of the HDZ parliamentary group in the Croatian Parliament.

By a decision of the Parliament from April 2012 to July 2013, he was one of the 12 Croatian observer delegates in the European Parliament.

From July 1, 2013, he officially took office as a Member of the European Parliament.