Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Marija Pejcinovic Buric was on Wednesday elected secretary general of the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly for the next five years, the current head said, according to AFP.

With 159 votes from 268 members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) meeting in Strasbourg, Pejcinovic Buric beat Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders to the job, said PACE head Liliane Maury Pasquier.

Buric succeeds former Norwegian premier Thorbjorn Jagland, who served two terms, on September 18.

Buric was elected to a five-year term and will be responsible for strategic planning, programme orientation and the Council's budget, which stood at 437 million euros ($500 million) in 2019.