Tonino Picula (; born 31 August 1961) is a Croatian politician currently serving his fourth term as a Member of the European Parliament for Croatia, having previously run in 2013, 2014, 2019 and 2024 European elections.
Picula entered Croatian politics in the early 1990s in recently formed democratic Croatia and had served four consecutive terms as a member of the Croatian Parliament, having been elected in the 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. In 1986, he graduated in sociology from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb and earned the title of professor of sociology. From 1987 to 1989, he worked as an associate axpert at the Croatian Parliament of Culture and secretary of the magazine Kulturni radnik, after which he worked for a year as an associate expert at the Center for Idea-Theoretical Work. With the independence of the Republic of Croatia and the beginning of the Croatian War for Independence, he actively engaged in its defence as a member of the Armed Forces.
He is married and has a daughter with his wife Marijana.
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 achieved several developments in its foreign relations, including obtaining candidate status for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union, and joining the World Trade Organization. He signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement on behalf of the Croatian government, and submitted the country's application for membership in the European Union. He also signed, on behalf of Croatia, the Agreement on Succession Issues of the Former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, following a prolonged period of negotiations, disagreements, and delays.
In the 2005 local elections, he was elected mayor of Velika Gorica. He also served as president of the SDP branch in Velika Gorica from 1997 to 2000.
From 2004 to 2008, he served as president of the SDP Main Committee, and subsequently as a member of the party’s Presidency for four years. He has been elected as a member of the Croatian Parliament in every parliamentary election since 2000. In Parliament, he served as chair of the Committee on Foreign Policy and as a member of the Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure and Political System, the Committee for Interparliamentary Cooperation, the Committee for War Veterans, and the Committee for European Integration.
Since 2003, he has been the head of the Delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, where he has been active for ten years. In the period from 2010 to 2011, he was the rapporteur of the Committee for Political and Security Affairs of the OSCE PA, and from 2011 to 2014, he held the position of Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. He was appointed as a special coordinator and head of OSCE observation missions to the parliamentary and presidential assemblies in Moldova (2010), Kazakhstan (2011), Russia (2012), Georgia (2012) and Armenia (2013).
After the end of Croatian negotiations for EU membership, Tonino Picula became an observer of the Croatian Parliament in the European Parliament, while in the first Croatian elections for the European Parliament in 2013, he was elected with the largest number of preferential votes.
In the first and in the last European parliamentary elections in the Republic of Croatia (2013, 2014, 2019 and 2024), Tonino Picula was elected by the direct will of the citizens - preferential votes.
Named the most influential Croatian member of the European Parliament twice, in 2020 and 2023. According to the explanation of the EU Matrix, Picula was among the first 100 thanks to his work in the field of EU foreign and cohesion policy.
In 2024, he was declared the most influential in the field of foreign policy, and the 28th most influential MEP out of a total of 705 MEPs in the European Parliament.
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 in 2014, 2019, and 2024. term.
From the first term MEP Tonino Picula defined two main areas in which he would act during his mandate: the affirmation of Adriatic Croatia as a European region with great potential and, in foreign policy, participation in the creation of European policy towards the southeast of Europe, a region of special interest for Croatia.
During all his mandates, he did not limit himself to those two areas, but acted more broadly, trying to contribute where possible to protect Croatian interests. Some of the topics covered by representative Picula are:
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).
As vice-president of the Delegation of the European Parliament for relations with Southeast Europe, Tonino Picula went on his first official mission to Albania and Kosovo, and also stayed in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. He cooperated with fellow deputies to resolve the long-standing crisis in BiH and the issue of institutional equality of Croats in BiH. Due to the deterioration of the political and security situation, he stayed in Kyiv and Kharkiv three times as part of the Ad hoc Delegation of the European Parliament. At the invitation of the Office of the European Parliament in Washington, he presented Croatia's entry into the EU during talks at the State Department, the Pentagon, Congress, the World Bank and foreign policy foundations.
During the 2019–2024 mandate, Picula was particularly active in the areas of foreign policy, security, and defence. He authored or co-authored ten reports directly related to these topics, focusing on issues such as the European Union’s strategic autonomy, its relations with the United States, and the development of an independent role for the EU in global affairs.
As the EP's permanent rapporteur for relations with the United States, he signed two reports with recommendations to the European Council and the Commission on how to position themselves in relations with the US. Also, he was responsible for the authorship of the Report on the new EU enlargement strategy adopted in 2023, and the earlier report on enlargement to the Western Balkans. Both reports are key documents for the future and security of Croatia, as a currently exposed EU border member.
Also, Picula was the author of the Report on cohesion policy and regional strategies for the fight against climate change: as administrative units, regions are a particularly important lever in the fight against climate change, and the fight itself is crucial for the long-term security future of the EU. Namely, climate changes, such as droughts that destroy crops and change landscapes, are one of the key drivers of migration, both now and in the future.
As president of the Working Group for the Western Balkans in the EP, author of the Report on the New European Union Enlargement Strategy, as rapporteur for Montenegro, and co-rapporteur of the EP for the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans worth 6 billion euros, he makes a key contribution to the European integration of the Western Balkan region, with a special focus on Montenegro. In the mandate 2019-2024. as the main reporteur, he was the author of three reports on Montenegro's progress towards EU membership.
Picula had a central role in the management of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA III) worth 14.2 billion euros for the period 2021-2027, intended to support candidate and potential candidate countries, including Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey. The focus of IPA III is on key reforms in the rule of law, economic transformations and harmonization with European standards, with the aim of strengthening democracy, socio-economic development and regional cooperation.
Strategy against aggression on Ukraine As the coordinator of S&D in the field of foreign policy, Tonino Picula played a key role in creating the Resolution on Russian aggression against Ukraine. In his capacity as chief negotiator, Picula had a decisive influence on the Resolution which clearly condemned the invasion of Ukraine and supported its resistance to the aggressor. Picula visited Mariupol and Zaporizhzhia immediately before the Russian invasion and Kyiv twice during the war.
The resolution encouraged diplomatic efforts to stop the aggression, provide urgent humanitarian aid to Ukraine and strengthen its defense capabilities. Picula was actively involved in promoting European defense cooperation and support to Ukraine, which led to concrete proposals to strengthen European defense capabilities.
Picula's work on the Resolution on Russian aggression against Ukraine emphasizes the need for a decisive response by the European Union to external challenges, which contributed to strengthening Ukraine's position and promoting the fundamental values on which the European Union rests - democracy, justice and respect for international law.
Regional Development and Islands Policy