Quick Facts
Biography
Tonino Picula (born 31 August 1961) is a Croatian politician who currently serves his second term as a Croatian Member of the European Parliament, had previously served as a Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2000 to 2003 and as a Mayor of Velika Gorica from 2005 to 2009.
After becoming involved in politics in the early 1990s, Picula served four consecutive terms as Member of the Croatian Parliament, having been elected in the 2000, 2003, 2007 and 2011 parliament elections.
In 2014 European Parliament elections Picula received 125,603 preferential votes, which is more than all the other candidates who participated in this election.
Picula is a member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP). After Zoran Milanović announced on September 12, 2016 that he would not run for another term as SDP president, Picula expressed his intentions of running for the position.
Biography
Early life
Picula was born in Mali Lošinj and completed both primary and secondary education at Šibenik. He graduated sociology at Zagreb's University. He is a long-time member of the SDP and was the party's Secretary of international relations from 1993 to 2000. He also led the SDP branch in Velika Gorica from 1997 to 2000. He has been member of the Croatian Parliament for several mandates.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
After the year 2000 elections in which SDP, under Ivica Račan, won in a broad coalition, he was appointed to be Foreign Minister until the end of the governments mandate in 2003. During his term in office, Croatia had several important foreign-relation successes, including becoming a candidate for NATO and the European Union and joining World Trade Organization. He signed the Stabilization and Association Agreement, as the representative of Croatia, and submitted the country's application for membership in the EU.
Later biography
During local elections in 2005, he was elected mayor of Velika Gorica. After Ivica Račan died in mid-2007, Picula ran to succeed him as president, but lost during the first round of election to Zoran Milanović and Željka Antunović.
Member of the European Parliament
On 1 April 2012, Picula was appointed by the Sabor to be an (euro-)observer in the European Parliament. He became a member of the Committee for Foreign Affairs. As a SDP member, he joined the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (S&D). He was elected as full euro-deputy in the European election of 14 April 2013, listed first on the SDP coalition list. On 1 July 2013, after Croatia joined the European Union, Picula took office as a full Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was re-elected as MEP in the European election of 25 May 2014, listed third on the Kukuriku coalition list.