President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Zagreb on Wednesday as the first French president to officially visit Croatia, which expects his support for joining the Schengen and euro areas, and the purchase of French fighter jets will be finalised during the visit.

The visit will begin with a working dinner with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovićc with global and regional issues on the agenda.

President Zoran Milanovic will receive Macron in his office on Thursday morning with all state honours.

Macron will then lay a wreath at the Monument to the Homeland. Macron expressed the wish to pay his respects to those killed in the 1991-95 war and will be the first high guest to do so at the new memorial in Zagreb.

He will then go to the government.

First fighter jets in Croatia in late 2023

Croatia is buying from France 12 Dassault Rafale F3R used multipurpose fighter jets – ten single-seats and two two-seaters – for €999 million to be paid in five instalments from 2022 to 2026.

A procurement agreement will be signed on Thursday by Defence Ministers Mario Banozic of Croatia and Florence Parly of France, which Agence France-Presse has described as Croatia’s biggest armament since the war of independence.

Croatia is the second EU member state after Greece to buy the French jets. The French offer was chosen among the US new F-16 Block 70, the Swedish new JAS 39 Gripen, and the Israeli used F-16 Barak.

The first aircraft are expected in Croatia late in 2023 or early in 2024.

Croatia seeking support for Schengen, euro area

Macron is visiting Croatia ahead of France’s taking over the rotating Council of the EU presidency on 1 January. It is expected that until then a legal procedure will be launched to adopt a formal decision on Croatia’s accession to the Schengen Area. A final decision could be made by next June.

Plenkovic said on Monday Croatia had France’s support for Schengen and that it would be contained in a strategic partnership agreement Macron and he would sign on Thursday.

The two countries already have a strategic partnership but the new agreement will expand it to many new areas. The government said the agreement would be a framework for additionally strengthening the relations with France.

Croatia also expects France’s support for joining the euro area. Plenkovic has said he hopes Croatia will join by 2023.

Before leaving Zagreb, Macron will attend a lunch with guests from the public sphere as well as culture, the economy, science and sports who are in some way connected to France.

They include Josip Skoblar, the Croatian footballer who scored 44 goals in one season playing for Marseille, a record in French football championships.

Miroslav Blazevic, the Croatian national football team coach when Croatia won the bronze in France in 1998, is also expected, as is, according to the media, Tereza Kesovija, the singer who built her career in France, performing at the Olympia in Paris.

Last June, the French Ambassador to Croatia Gaël Veyssièren presented Kesovija with the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters award, while in 1999, the French Culture Ministry decorated her as Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters.