2020 Croatian Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Croatia held the presidency of the Council of the European Union during the first half of 2020. The presidency was the last of three presidencies making up a presidency trio, which began with the presidency of Romania, followed by that of Finland. It was the first time Croatia had held the presidency; the country acceded to the European Union in 2013.

During the presidency, the United Kingdom left the European Union (Brexit), and the European Union responded to the coronavirus outbreak, which was declared a global pandemic in March.

Overview
At the start of the presidency, two of Croatia's main priorities were dealing with issues arising from Brexit, and negotiating with Balkan countries that were interested in joining the European Union.

The coronavirus pandemic forced the presidency into crisis mode, and although there were some disjointed efforts during the early stages of the pandemic, the European Union came together to work on a number of common goals, including bringing more than 500,000 European Union citizens stranded elsewhere in the world back home, and proposing a coronavirus relief package worth hundreds of billions of euros.