"Croatia supports all mechanisms for the protection of the rule of law, including the new one that makes the use of EU funding conditional on respect for the rule of law, and would like Brussels and Budapest to settle their dispute through agreement," state agency Hina cited the Croatian state secretary for European affairs, Andreja Metelko-Zgombic, as saying on Tuesday.

“Croatia supports all mechanisms for the protection of the rule of law, including this one on conditionality,” Andreja Metelko-Zgombic said in Brussels where she attended a meeting of the General Affairs Council.

On Sunday, the European Commission proposed to the Council of the EU to freeze 65 per cent of EU funds, or €7.5 billion, to Hungary over corruption and problems with the rule of law.

This unprecedented decision was made under a new mechanism that makes the use of EU funds conditional on respect for the rule of law.

Budapest can avoid sanctions if in the next two months it eliminates the reasons that prompted this proposal.

“We were glad to hear that the Commission and Hungary have agreed a time frame to address this matter, which might last two months at most, and that there is room for agreement. We would like to see these preventive mechanisms work and achieve their purpose,” Metelko-Zgombic said.

Other member states did not show much appetite either to enter into a serious conflict with a member state at a time when it is important to preserve unity while Russia is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine.

At the same time, Hungary is coping with a serious economic crisis and is trying to avoid the freeze of much needed EU funding. It has announced that it will implement the necessary reforms and remove the reasons for concern of the Commission and other member states.

Asked about Croatia’s position on the proposal to abandon the unanimity rule on certain foreign and security policy issues and adopt decisions by qualified majority, Metelko-Zgombic said: “We have emphasised the importance of unanimity on issues of essence and importance to member states, and we are among the countries that have said they see the value and strength of unanimity. We are open to discussion in the future on some other mechanisms where it would be in the interest of all to switch to another method of decision making in specific areas.”

German state secretary for European affairs Anna Luhrmann on Tuesday called for more decisions to be taken by qualified majority instead of by consensus.

The General Affairs Council today began preparations for a regular autumn summit to be held in Brussels on 21-22 October.

Metelko-Zgombic said that Croatia had proposed that one of the topics discussed at the summit should be Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is due to hold a general election on 2 October.

She said at the meeting that all EU membership candidates were required to align with the EU’s common foreign and security policy, which also applies to the sanctions the EU has imposed on Russia.

Serbia is the only EU membership candidate that refuses to impose sanctions on Russia.

“We would really like all candidate countries to do this, and we can see that Serbia is ruling out this possibility. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a revisionist narrative from Serbia that is astonishingly similar to what we are hearing from Russia in connection with Ukraine,” Metelko Zgombić said.