The European Council has confirmed, in line with previous conclusions, that it will consider the issue of enlargement at the meeting in December 2004, read the conclusions of the summit.
On 17 and 18 December the European Council is expected to decide on the exact date of entry talks with Croatia and on launching accession talks with Turkey.
At the summit in June this year, EU leaders awarded Croatia the status of candidate country and set the beginning of next year as the framework for the start of negotiations.
For the first time since Croatia gained candidate status, its prime minister was invited, along with colleagues from other candidate countries, to attend a meeting with the EU Presidency, which traditionally informs candidate countries about the summit's work.
The traditionally main topic of the autumn summit was economic development. EU leaders accepted framework guidelines for the reform of the Lisbon strategy, a document which they adopted in 2000 and in which they set as a goal making the European economy the world's strongest economy by 2010 based on knowledge and modern technologies.
EU leaders entrusted the Commission with preparing a draft reform until January next year, and they are expected to voice their position on the draft at the spring summit in March 2005.
The future European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, advocated that each country
appoint a special coordinator for the implementation of the Lisbon strategy. He said that the Lisbon strategy would be a priority of the Commission and sought assistance from member states.
Another important topic was the judiciary and internal affairs. EU leaders adopted a five-year draft programme on asylum, migrations and the fight against terrorism, the so-called Hague programme.
It was agreed that most decisions in that area should be adopted in the future by qualified majority instead of by consensus, the only exception being the issue of legal migrants.