The ministers for foreign affairs also discussed the issue of whether isolation or dialogue should be used as an instrument of European foreign policy. Of course we must judge this from case to case, but there was broad agreement that dialogue is to be preferred over isolation , stated Anna Lindh. The discussions on enlargement also started on Saturday afternoon, and are to be resumed on Sunday. The main issue arising here was that of free movement and the candidate countries. This is one of the most difficult issues right now , said Anna Lindh.
Opinions differ among the countries.
However she stressed that all the foreign ministers agree that the pace of the negotiations on membership should be maintained. And we still hope to be able to resolve this issue during the Swedish Presidency.