European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the decision to grant Serbia EU candidate status.

"I hope it will encourage Serbia to undertake further efforts in order to meet the political and economic criteria for EU membership," Van Rompuy said at a news conference at the end of the first day of an EU summit meeting.

Barroso said he believed the decision was very good and showed that the EU was still attractive.

EU leaders decided to postpone until September a decision on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area of free movement, which is still being opposed by the Netherlands.

Romania tried to link the issue of awarding candidate status to Serbia with the green light for its admission to the Schengen area, even though EU officials do not want to admit it officially.

Answering questions from the press, Van Rompuy denied that the Romanian president had at any moment connected Serbia's candidacy with admission to the Schengen area.

On Friday, the second day of the summit, leaders of 25 EU member countries will sign the Treaty on stability, coordination and governance in the Economic and Monetary Union in order to tighten fiscal discipline with the aim of averting possible new debt crises in individual member countries. Only Great Britain and the Czech Republic have decided against signing the document.

Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic is attending the summit as an observer.