Andrej Plenković can see his moment coming.

He has been Croatian prime minister for less than three years but is already a darling of the conservative European People’s Party (EPP). And there are big plans in the making, starting with Croatia’s presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of next year.

Plenković wants to conclude negotiations on the long-term budget during his country’s six-month presidency. “Our ambition [is] to conclude the negotiation on the MFF [Multiannual Financial Framework] because it is very clear that this will, at least partly, end up on our table, that will be the key dossier,” he told POLITICO in an interview.

EU leaders last December agreed to reach an agreement “in autumn 2019,” but diplomats admit that is not likely to happen.

Plenković, 49, a former diplomat and MEP, used the interview to reiterate his commitment toward deeper EU integration. Croatia — the youngest EU member, having joined in 2013 — aims to join the passport-free Schengen area and the euro by 2024, the prime minister said.

“That’s my ambition, by the end of the next [EU] mandate … I would say Schengen earlier and euro later.”

Croatia’s EU presidency will also be the moment to restart discussions on EU enlargement, a topic put firmly on the backburner by the current Commission. (“In the next five years, no new members will be joining us in the European Union,” Jean-Claude Juncker said in July 2014 when he was still a candidate for Commission president.)

During the Croatian presidency, EU leaders will meet in Zagreb for a summit with Western Balkan countries.

“I believe that in 2020 … it is the new moment to really see what we can do in solving open issues between the countries in the region and having some sort of agenda of their institutional dynamic vis-à-vis the European Union for the next decade,” Plenković said.

Just don’t call it a relaunch of EU enlargement.

“I wouldn’t use that word, especially not now before the [European] elections … Nobody wants to mention enlargement but I feel that if we are too hesitant as the European Union, if we are too slow, too distant, we’ll see the involvement of other big actors in the region,” he said, refusing to name any particular country with eyes on the region — which include Russia, China and Turkey — while adding that “they are not threats, they are articulating their interests.”

China ties

Croatia has come under scrutiny for signing a deal with a Chinese company for the construction of a bridge that will link the southern Pelješac peninsula with the rest of the country. The EU will contribute 85 percent of the cost, as the Commission allocated €357 million of EU funds for the project, which will be carried out by the China Road and Bridge Corporation, a state-owned company.

That’s raised eyebrows as in recent months the EU has tried to get tougher on China, calling for example for reciprocity in market access. And last month Croatia hosted in Dubrovnik a meeting between China and Central and Eastern European countries.

Plenković said he doesn’t see any problem with his approach to Beijing. He said the bridge contract was awarded after a “transparent public tender” and the conclusions of the Dubrovnik summit were “fully in line” with the stance taken at the last EU-China summit.

“It wasn’t easy to explain to the Commission that this is a project that connects two parts of Croatia,” he said of the Pelješac bridge. But he said it would become a “monument of EU membership.”

The Croatian prime minister also took the chance to pour cold water on a border dispute with Slovenia, saying his country has good relations with Ljubljana and that a solution is possible through bilateral talks.

And he defended the Commission against accusations from Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec, who in a recent interview with POLITICO said it is biased toward Croatia in the border dispute because its government is run by an EPP party. The Commission presidency is currently in the hands of EPP veteran Jean-Claude Juncker.

“The Commission did the only thing that was possible, to leave it bilaterally to us,” Plenković said.

Plenković, along with all other EU leaders except Theresa May, will be in Sibiu, Romania on Thursday to discuss the future of the bloc and, although it is not officially on the agenda, talk about appointments for the EU’s top jobs after the European election.

In a speech on Tuesday at the European Policy Centre, Plenković set out his view of the EU’s future and underlined the achievements of the bloc, saying that “Europe is home to the most equal societies in the world, with the highest level of life quality” while also calling for a deal on migration “in a way that no member state is put in difficulty because of its geographical location.”

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In the speech he said he wants a Europe that is “agile, not fragile,” “together, not apart” and “outward-, not inward-looking.”

Later this month, on May 18, Plenković will host a campaign event in Zagreb for the EPP’s lead candidate for Commission president, Manfred Weber, who will be joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Plenković said the German MEP is “a friend” and that the event in Zagreb would be an “occasion to give full support to him.”

However, asked three times if Weber, who has no previous experiment in government, would be the ideal candidate for the Commission job, Plenković didn’t give a clear answer.

On suggestions that Merkel could get one of the top EU jobs, Plenković was very careful: “I have never heard it, neither from her nor from anyone else that I trust … so far I haven’t seen an articulation of this scenario.”

He said the same about rumors that he himself is interested in a senior EU job, making clear that he hadn’t heard such rumblings and adding: “My job is prime minister of Croatia.”