Macedonia has been granted the candidacy status, the British presidency of the European bloc reported on early Saturday morning.
"The European Council decides to grant candidate country status to the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia," EU leaders said in written conclusions at a summit they held in Brussels on 15 an 16 December when they discussed a new long-term European budget for the 2007-2013 period.
After the talks on the budget were finally successfully finished, Macedonia was declared a candidate country.
The EU leaders also welcomed significant progress Macedonia had made towards meeting the political and economic criteria for EU membership, but made clear there was much further work to be done before Skopje could be considered for membership.
They also endorsed recent demands from France that any further enlargement of the Union would require a broad debate across Europe.