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       Croatia’s president said that efforts by the European Union to uphold democratic standards in member countries threatened to tear the bloc apart, and condemned EU efforts to financially penalise Hungary for its alleged breaches of rule of law standards.

       President Zoran Milanovi？ made the statements during a news conference in Hungary’s capital Budapest on Friday following talks with his Hungarian counterpart Katalin Novák.

       Milanovi？ echoed frequent Hungarian criticism of the EU, saying the bloc was overreaching in its powers over member states and that this excessive control had precipitated Brexit and driven the United Kingdom out.

       United States of Europe

       The EU shouldn’t become, he said, a “United States of Europe,” adding that EU procedures against Hungary, which have frozen billions of euros in funding to Budapest over corruption and rule of law concerns, threatened to destroy the 27-member bloc.

       “This sort of approach (between the EU and Hungary) is deeply irritating,” he said, warning that “today it is Hungary, tomorrow it will be some bigger country that will need to be ’taught a lesson.’”

       Milanovi？ won the presidential election in Croatia in late 2019 as a liberal and left-leaning candidate, a counterpoint to the conservative government currently in power in the newest EU member state.

       But he has since made a turn to populist nationalism, and criticised Western policies both toward the Balkans and Russia.

       Populist nationalism

       Milanovi？ has thus developed a reputation as pro-Russia, which he has denied. Yet in recent months, he has openly opposed the admission of Finland and Sweden into NATO amid the war in Ukraine, and the training of Ukrainian troops in Croatia as part of EU aid to the embattled country.

       While the heads of state said they both condemn Russian aggression in Ukraine and support its territorial integrity, Milanovi？ said he, like Hungary’s government, doesn’t support sanctions against Moscow, and characterised the conflict in Ukraine as a proxy war between Russia and the United States.

       “The question is how much damage (sanctions) will bring upon us. It creates damage to Europe,” Milanovi？ said.

       “We managed to bring Russia and China closer together. In whose interest is this? All those questions will have to be answered to me, especially by those who are making those decisions in my name. I demand an answer.”

       Katalin Novak, President of Hungary AP Photo

       Novák on Friday told the news conference that she welcomed Croatia’s January 1 entrance into the 27-country Schengen Area, a zone of border-free travel in Europe.

       With the entrance of Croatia into the zone, a border fence separating Hungary and Croatia was subsequently dismantled, a change that Novák said would grow tourism and ease travel between the neighbouring countries and move the EU’s external borders further to the south.

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       Diplomatic envoys visited Kosovo and Serbia on Friday as part of their ongoing efforts to defuse tensions and help secure a reconciliation agreement between the two former war foes.

       Envoys from the United States, the European Union, France, Germany and Italy first met with Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Kosovo.

       They later met in Belgrade with President Aleksandar Vucic to discuss possible next steps toward normalising relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

       Kosovo independence

       Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

       Serbia, with support from allies Russia and China, has refused to recognise Kosovo’s statehood, which is accepted by the US and much of the West.

       The dispute remains a source of instability in the Balkans amid Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

       After more than two hours of “long, ... not easy, but ... very honest, very open” talks with Kurti, EU envoy Miroslav Lajcak said it was too soon to announce any dramatic developments on a proposal presented to Pristina and Belgrade last year.

       “We had expected better understanding of the opportunities this proposal offers," said Lajcak, a former foreign minister of Slovakia. "I hope we will get there, to full understanding and full use of the potential of this proposal.”

       Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo

       The EU has spent more than a decade mediating dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade.

       No details of the latest proposal have been made public.

       “We are in the middle of our mission, and we continue to Belgrade,” Lajcak said.

       After talks later with Vucic, Lajcak described the proposal as "the best way for the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo and for European integration of the region.”

       Vucic, Lajcak added, “demonstrated a responsible approach and willingness to take difficult decisions in the interest of peace and European perspective for Serbia.”

       “We feel encouraged," he said. “Our work will continue without delay.”

       Vucic said in a separate statement that he would hold further consultations within Serbia in the coming days and "that we are ready to accept the concept and work on the implementation of the proposed agreement," though one part remains disputable.

       Frozen conflict

       “We agreed that frozen conflict is not a solution, because when you have a frozen conflict, it is only a question of time when someone will unfreeze it," Vucic said.

       Last month, the Western powers participated in resolving a tense situation in northern Kosovo, where Serbs erected barricades on the main roads to protest the arrest of a former Serb police officer.

       The situation in the north remains volatile.

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       Only a few dozen police officers of the EU rule of law mission, known as EULEX, are taking care of the area’s security after all ethnic Serb representatives resigned from their posts in November.

       Serbia’s bloody crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999 ended with a 78-day NATO bombing campaign, which also pushed Serbian troops, police and paramilitary forces out of Kosovo.

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       As Ukrainian soldiers shiver in frontline trenches, their hope is that NATO countries will stop dithering over the decision to send modern battle tanks to help them combat Russian aggression.

       A team of journalists from France Télévision was taken to Velyka Novosilka and guided through a maze of snow-capped earthworks in an area the soldiers call the zero line.

       They saw soldiers under almost constant bombardment from Russians only a few hundred metres away.

       ‘Everyone is afraid, all the time, I am also very afraid,’ said one of the commanders. ‘But if my men see it, then they will be stressed too. So officially, I'm not afraid.’

       The labyrinth of frozen earth is all that protects the Ukrainians when the bombs fall.

       The French team arrived before dawn, the first foreign journalists to visit.

       ‘The most frightening thing is when we see a tank advancing towards us, when the tank fires, it happens very quickly,’ said another Ukrainian soldier.

       Soldiers do not stay more than three days on this zero line, which is constantly under the threat of Russian strikes. After almost a year of conflict, "there is nothing but hatred" for the Russian soldiers, says their commander.

       France Télévision’s journalists said the soldiers interviewed agreed more heavy tanks from Ukraine’s European allies are needed.