The European Council of Thursday, 16 September, was held under the chairmanship of Mr. Herman Van Rompuy and was attended by the Heads of State and Government and the Foreign Ministers of the 27 EU Member States.

The meeting mainly discussed relations between the EU and its strategic partners.

At a session of heads of state of the European Union on Sept. 16 in Brussels, it was judged that agreement among EU foreign ministers to discuss the further steps of Serbia's membership candidate bid in October was satisfactory.

EU leaders will in December again discuss the membership process of the Western Balkans, and as part of that Serbia's progress on its path toward the EU, Slovenian officials told journalists at the session.

Slovenian Prime Minister Borut Pahor announced that it had sent a letter to Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, requesting that the decision to discuss in October the request that the European Commission give its opinion on Serbia's candidacy bid be affirmed during the Sept. 16 meeting.

Van Rompuy replied that this had already been agreed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Sept. 13.

He explained that EU leaders would discuss the entire EU accession of the countries of the Western Balkans in December, so that no special mention of Serbia had been included in the conclusion of the EU summit.

The concluding document of the session underlined that the EU had "secured stability in the Western Balkans, particularly by giving the region a European perspective."

European leaders underlined that time would again be devoted to it at the next meeting.

EU leaders emphasized as part of the conclusion that the EU must be an "effective global player, ready to share responsibility for global security and to lead the way in molding unified responses to joint challenges."