Croatia's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marija Pejcinovic-Buric, attended two EU Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) meetings in Brussels on Tuesday, one on trade and the other on development, the ministry said in a press release.

The meeting on trade authorised the launch of negotiations on a free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand, and agreed a new approach to negotiating and concluding EU trade agreements, which should prevent national and regional parliaments of EU member states from blocking the ratification of trade agreements.

The European Union is Australia’s third largest trading partner. Last year the trade between the two reached €47.7 billion, with the EU generating a positive trade balance of €21 billion. The EU is New Zealand’s second largest trading partner after Australia, with their bilateral volume of trade reaching €8.7 billion in 2017.

The FAC, which meets once a month and is made up of foreign ministers of the bloc’s 28 countries, also discussed current challenges facing the multilateral trade system. It discussed free trade agreements with Japan and Singapore, as well as recent development in trade relations between the EU and the United States, namely the measures which the US has imposed on steel and aluminium imports.

The second meeting on development discussed a draft mandate for negotiations on relations with 79 African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries, intended to replace the Cotonou Agreement which is set to expire in 2020. After the mandate is adopted, talks on a new agreement will begin to replace the existing deal.

The FAC also discussed the EU emergency trust fund for Africa, which was formally launched at the summit on migration in Malta’s capital Valleta in November 2015. Its purpose is to promote stability and contribute to better migration management.

The ministers also exchanged views on the proposed multi-annual financial framework for the 2021-27 period, notably on the section concerning the financing of EU external actions, and at the informal part of the meeting the ministers discussed activities by member states in promoting gender equality.

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