The news that the Commission is recommending official EU candidate status for Serbia was welcomed by MEPs, who also supported the revamped enlargement strategy outlined by Stefan Füle to the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Parliament's rapporteur on Serbia, (ALDE, SL) welcomed the Commission proposal to give Serbia EU candidate status and stressed that further progress could only be achieved if Serbia re-engaged in dialogue with Kosovo.

Doris Pack (EPP, DE), the MEP responsible for Bosnia and Herzegovina, asked why Serbia was the only country to be bound by a "key priority", namely that it must take further steps to normalize its relations with Kosovo. Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle replied that this condition was imposed because of the "nature of this priority", and said the Commission would be flexible about it. He added that the formation of a state-level government was a priority for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Hannes Swoboda (S&D, AT), rapporteur on Croatia, echoed the Commissioner in hoping Parliament would be able to give its consent to signing the accession treaty with Croatia in December. Positive signals should be given to other Western Balkan countries to assure them they were on the right path, he added.

MEPs supported the new approach outlinecd by Mr Füle, who said his new enlargement strategy would be based on four priorities that would apply across the board to all countries seeking to join the EU. These were: strengthening the rule of law and reforms to public administration; guaranteeing freedom of expression for the media; boosting regional cooperation; and promoting sustainable economic recovery, growth and job creation.

He also proposed that in future the chapters on the judiciary, fundamental rights and home affairs should all be opened at the start of negotiations with candidate countries and kept open until the very end of the accession talks.

The rapporteur on Kosovo,Ulrike Lunacek (Greens, AT), stressed that public support for the accession process should be kept up by adopting a visa liberalisation roadmap and forging closer trade links, as well as boosting other EU programmes in the region.

On the subject of public support, Iceland rapporteur Cristian Preda (EPP, RO) stressed that there were splits over the question of EU accession not only amongst Icelandic society but also in the government and this posed a political risk.

Richard Howitt (S&D, UK), rapporteur on Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said the next twelve months would be crucial for the country to speed up its reforms. Commissioner Füle agreed with Mr Howitt that ensuring media freedom would be critical.

Parliament's rapporteur on Turkey, Ria Ooment-Ruijten (EPP, NL), said it was essential that Turkey continue its reforms and added that even countries without candidate status enjoyed more favourable visa conditions for entering the EU than Turkey. She emphasised that to resolve the Cyprus issue a positive climate was needed on both sides.

Nikolaos Chountis (GUE/NGL, GR), rapporteur on Albania, asked the Commissioner if he was optimistic about Tirana's progress towards membership. Mr Füle stressed that the reason the process had slowed down was the political stalemate in the country and the EU would give all possible support to overcome this.