MEPs on Thursday called for lifting the veto on Foreign Affairs Council decisions "in order to strengthen the EU's global positions and for strengthening the common defence capacities," while an amendment on Bosnia and Herzegovina caused a dispute among Croatian MEPs, state agency Hina said.

In his annual report on the common foreign and security policy David McAllister (EPP) said Europe’s security environment was more fragile than ever since the end of the Cold War and that no member state could effectively respond to the present-day security challenges alone.

The report was adopted with 474 votes for, while 113 were against and 102 abstained.

Among other things, the report calls for the EU’s cooperation with Western Balkan countries so that solutions can be found to the problems obstructing reform, including the implementation of 14 key priorities in BiH which ensure the implementation of the Dayton peace agreement.

An amendment was adopted to that article submitted by Tonino Picula (Croatia), Pedro Marques  (Portugal) and Thijs Reuten (Netherlands).

The amendment adds to the existing text that the European Parliament strongly condemns the unconstitutional and secessionist intentions of the Bosnian Serb entity’s authorities which are aimed at establishing parallel institutions in the field of medicines and medical products, the judiciary, defence, security and taxation which subvert BiH’s state structures and create an existential threat to its unity and territorial integrity.

It also says that the Parliament condemns the harmful role of regional actors and Russia’s foreign meddling, and calls for the Council to impose targeted sanctions against Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik and his allies over his corruptive actions, continued destabilisation of the country and subversion of BiH’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Picula was criticised for the latter part of the amendment by MEPs of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who claim that “with ambiguous formulations he is insinuating that Croatia, as a regional actor, has a harmful role in BiH.”

“That’s the policy of those actors who openly accuse Croatia for a destabilising agenda in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is why it is especially incomprehensible that the amendment is co-signed by deputy Picula,” the HDZ group in the European Parliament said in a statement.

“In these watershed moments for the future of the Croatian people in BiH, as well as for the future of the whole country, it is completely futile to strain the rhetoric, divert attention from the fundamental issue of changing the Election Law, and to call for sanctions, which should be only an extreme measure,” the statement said.

The amendment was supported by 504 MEPs, including a majority of the European People’s Party, while 93 were against and 72 abstained.