State Secretary Metelko-Zgombić attends GAC

State Secretary for Europe Andreja Metelko-Zgombić on Tuesday in Brussels attended a meeting of the General Affairs Council.

The ministers approved the Council’s conclusions on enlargement and stabilization and association process. The conclusions send a strong message to Southeast Europe that countries who meet the criteria and implement reforms can make headway along the European path. Croatia welcomed the adoption of conclusions, underscoring the importance of encouraging Bosnia and Herzegovina to amend the election law.

Croatia also welcomed the part of conclusions pertaining to Serbia, which includes the full respect for human rights, protection of the most vulnerable groups, non-discrimination of national minorities, prosecuting war crimes and shedding light on the missing persons.

The ministers exchanged views on the preparations for the European Council’s meeting on 16 December, which will discuss developments related to COVID-19, crisis management and resilience, energy prices, security and defence, migration and the situation in Belarus and Ukraine.

Metelko-Zgombić underlined the importance of further coordination of EU-level response to COVID-19 as well as global solidarity and vaccine distribution. In the context of crisis management and resilience, she stressed the need to boost inter-institutional, interdepartmental and cross-border cooperation, as well as the tying in of external and internal aspects of resilience.

Concerning the rising energy prices, Croatia supports continued investments in renewable energy sources as the best way to neutralize market disruptions. In the context of security and defence, the state secretary emphasized the need to strengthen cooperation between the EU and its immediate neighbours. In terms of the external aspects of migration, Metelko-Zgombić highlighted the importance of operationalizing and implementing the action plans for priority third countries, notably Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Slovenian presidency and the incoming French presidency presented the Roadmap of the European Semester 2022. The Council also took stock of the situation regarding respect for EU values in Hungary and reviewed the state of play regarding the rule of law in Poland as part of the Article 7(1) TEU procedures. The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights presented the report “Antisemitism: overview of antisemitic incidents recorded in the European Union 2010-2020”. The ministers endorsed the eighteen-month programme of the Council (1 January 2022 - 30 June 2023).

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