Miro Kovač

Miro Kovač
11th Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
In office 22 January 2016 – 19 October 2016
Prime Minister	Tihomir Orešković
Preceded by	Vesna Pusić
Succeeded by	Davor Stier
Personal details
Born	(1968-09-20) 20 September 1968 Split, Yugoslavia (now Croatia)
Political party	Croatian Democratic Union
Children	3
Alma mater	University of Zagreb University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle
Religion	Roman Catholicism

Miro Kovač (born 20 September 1968) is a Croatian historian, diplomat and politician who served as the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the Cabinet of Tihomir Orešković from January 22, 2016 until 19 October 2016.^[1] He is member of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union party.

Early life and education

Miro Kovač was born on September 20, 1968 in Split as the oldest out of four children. He started his high education on the University of Zagreb, and finished it at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris where he earned his Master's degree with thesis about national and European policies of the member states of the European Union, as well as his doctorate in history of the international relations with thesis about the role of France in the creation of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.^[2][3]

Career

In 1995, Kovač became employed in Office of the President of Croatia in the Department of Information in which he worked until 1999 when he was transferred to the position of the assistant adviser for Euro-Atlantic integration. He started his diplomatic career in 2001 as the Counselor at the Croatian Embassy in Brussels. In 2003, Kovač become Minister Counselor at the Croatian Embassy in Paris. When Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) came to power after 2003 elections, Kovač was named Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in 2005 Head of Diplomatic Protocol of the Ministry. In 2006, Kovač was appointed to the position of ambassador. From 2008 until 2013 he served as Croatian Ambassador to Germany.^[4]

Kovač was appointed international Secretary of HDZ by its then-chairman Tomislav Karamarko in 2014. After his mandate in Germany expired, state officials intended to appoint him as new Croatian ambassador to Poland, but he refused and returned to Croatia in order to help HDZ in the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections.

During 2014-15 presidential elections he was campaign chief of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. His successor is Davor Ivo Stier, a former diplomat, MEP and international secretary of the HDZ.

Personal life

Kovač is married with three children. He speaks Croatian, English, German, and French fluently and has basic understanding of Italian and Dutch.

Publications

• "La France, La création du royaume »Yougoslave« et la question Croate, 1914-1929", Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt a. M., New York, Oxford, Vienna: Peter Lang, 2001., p. 398.
• "Raspadanje Austro-Ugarske i rađanje Kraljevine SHS u svjetlu francuske politike (od listopada do prosinca 1918.)" (Break up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and birth of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in the light of French politics (from October to December 1918)), Časopis za suvremenu povijest, no. 1, 2003., p. 141-172.
• "Francuska i hrvatsko pitanje, 1914.-1929." (France and Croatian question, 1914-1929), Zagreb: Dom i svijet, 2005., p. 363
• "La Croatie et l'Union Européenne, 1990-2004", in: Lukić, Renéo, La politique étrangère de la Croatie de son indépendance à nos jours, 1991-2006, Laval: Presses universitaires de l'Université de Laval, 2006, p. 316^[5]

References