First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić 17 December attended a meeting of the General Affairs Council. The meeting discussed the upcoming European Council, conclusions on enlargement and entry talks with Serbia, which are expected to begin in January next year. “Our position is that Serbia should be enabled to begin the accession negotiations. In that sense, we supported the negotiating framework and believe that Serbia should begin the negotiations in January at the latest," Pusić said. She said Croatia insisted that the conclusions mention the alignment of the SAA with Serbia given Croatia's EU entry on July 1 this year. Serbia confirmed that it would honour the principle of traditional trade. In October, Serbia committed to honouring said principle by allowing Croatia to continue exporting cigarettes at preferential tariffs in the same volume as before Croatia's EU entry, but has not yet initialled the SAA.
The meeting discussed EU integration of other countries in the region as well. Pusić said Croatia pushed for granting Albania membership candidate status, but that several states were opposed to adopting a decision on that at this moment. She added that a compromise solution was being sought so that Tirana could be granted candidate status in the first half of 2014. Croatia also pushed for launching accession negotiations with Macedonia. "Unfortunately, that hasn’t met with support and the start of the negotiations was delayed again. We believe that Macedonia is stuck in a vicious circle," Pusić said.
In a ministerial discussion on enlargement, Bosnia and Herzegovina was barely mentioned. “I think that’s very bad, and when I said so, several colleagues said it takes two to tango. In other words, they believe the problem is in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We know there are many difficulties, but the EU should come up with a specific approach to Bosnia and Herzegovina and make an additional effort so that the country, which is very important, could make progress in European integration," said Pusić.
As for conclusions regarding the European Council, Croatia has managed to interpose energy as an important foreign policy issue and in regard to the Common Security and Defence Policy pushed for giving small and medium sized companies as chance in military industry.