Despite many items on the agenda, the meeting focused on two: Ukraine and energy, said Pusic after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels. “It was decided that only some chapters of the Association Agreement are to be signed with Ukraine. This does not mean that the Agreement will be divided into several documents, it will stay unique, but its parts will be signed when respective conditions are met. At this moment, only the political part will be signed,” said the minister. An agreement was reached in regard to the persons against whom sanctions would be imposed: ban from entering the EU and asset freezing. These are eight persons from the Crimean local self-government and 13 persons from Russia.
“We also discussed financial aid for Ukraine, the direction the events could take and the aggressively negative campaign against the Ukrainian government. Of course there are right-wing organizations in Ukraine, but the same goes for Russia and all of the EU member states. We agreed that the Ukrainian authorities had to be allowed to become more visible internationally to counter that negative media campaign,” Pusic said.
Asked to comment on the sanctions, the minister said: “Whether they are too mild will be seen once they come into effect. Some of them are automatic, so to speak, and occur naturally in situations like these, such as the ruble’s devaluation and the crash of the Moscow stock exchange. This is an unwelcome step backwards for Europe. No one wants to head in that direction and all of us wish a compromise could be reached.”
“Croatia’s position has always been that Ukraine should be a place where cooperation between Croatia and the EU would be strengthened, a zone where free trade and the EU would overlap, which is good for both Ukraine and Russia. Right now the situation has taken a turn for the worse and these prospects have become obscured, but we have to find a way to make this happen. Croatia has sent its observers to Crimea as part of the OSCE mission, but they were unable to reach locations of persons they could obtain information from. Upon their return, they visited eastern Ukraine, where they were able to determine the situation and talk to people,” Pusic told the press.
"Unfortunately, there was no time left for any other item on the agenda. But our initiative for Bosnia and Herzegovina is something that will be discussed and the talks will certainly last," Pusic said when asked about BiH. “A more proactive approach needs to be assumed towards BiH. It is up to us to find the most efficient and rational approach, and Croatia"s proposal contributes to that. I am hopeful that an efficient, clearly defined strategy for BiH will be found,” she said, adding that BiH would be discussed at the next meeting in April, when the ministers would also adopt conclusions on the topic.
In regard to Serbia"s parliamentary elections, Pusic congratulated those who achieved excellent results, adding: “We have normal, neighbourly relations with Serbia. There are issues left over from the past, but we won"t let ourselves be their hostages.”
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