(Hina) - Croatia supports its neighbours on their respective journeys towards the European Union, and one of the topics of the two-day meeting of the EU foreign ministers in Brussels is the EU membership bids of those aspirants, according to Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić. "The topic of enlargement, particularly important for Croatia, is now on the agenda," said the foreign minister.
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, is expected to submit her report on the implementation of the Serbia-Kosovo normalisation agreement, which those two countries signed this April.
“As for Serbia, we believe that stability and success of the region rests precisely on the European reforms and the European path. However, the reforms are equally important as the goal itself. In that regard, we support Serbia’s progress towards the start of negotiations. We believe that no extreme obstacles should be imposed upon any country, but basic criteria for opening the negotiations have to be met,” Pusić said.
She added that Croatia had initialled a letter of support for Albania’s candidacy and opposed withholding of pre-accession funds earmarked for Bosnia and Herzegovina due to lack of political agreement in the country.
The EU ministers also held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Pusić said the EU and Russia cooperated well when it came to Syria and Iran, but not so much when it came to the Eastern Partnership and relations with Ukraine. “The talks focused on the prospect of Ukraine not being put before such an impossible dilemma, but maintaining good relations and trading freely with both Russia and the EU,” said Pusić.