"Croatia will not be militarily involved in the Althea Mission, because one of the tasks of the mission is to monitor the implementation of the Dayton agreement, which Croatia is a signatory to, but it will give provide logistic support, as it has been giving to the SFOR Mission in Bosnia until now," Roncevic said.
The Croatian minister and the defence ministers of other EU candidate countries, as well as Norway and Iceland, the NATO member countries outside the EU, attended a meeting with the EU Troika.
EU representatives informed the present of the results of a meeting between EU defence ministers which focused on the establishment of forces for quick reaction. As part of its common foreign and security policy, as of 2007 the EU should have some ten armed units each consisting of 1,500 soldiers which could be deployed in hot spots across the world, at UN's request, within 15 days.
"On its path to the EU, Croatia will gradually be joining projects and initiatives of the common foreign and security policy and today's meeting is an important step towards that objective," Roncevic told the EU delegation led by Dutch Defence Minister Henk Kamp.
Earlier today, Croatian Foreign Minister Miomir Zuzul attended a meeting of EU foreign ministers which focused on the participation in civil components of the future EU peace missions.
"I expressed Croatia's readiness to accept the responsibility of an EU member country. We support the EU common foreign and security policy and we are ready to join it, but at this moment it is too early to talk about concrete aspects and nobody expects that from us," Zuzul said.
The EU operations are aimed at supporting peace. Considering its experience, Croatia could help in peace negotiations, the development of the civil society, the strengthening of institutions working on the establishment of the rule of law and the protection of minority rights.
At the end of this year, the EU will take over the NATO-led peace mission in Bosnia. Croatia could participate in the civil part of mission.