The European Union (EU) foreign ministers agreed in Luxembourg on Monday that, for the first time in years, further expansion of the EU will not be on the agenda for the forthcoming EU summit, to be held later this week.

Luxembourg, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, said there is nothing new to say about the existing candidate nations - Turkey, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria.

The meeting conclusions issued on Monday welcomed Croatia's cooperation with the UN tribunal on former Yugoslavia, but it did not identify a date for starting accession talks for the Balkan country.

Several EU foreign ministers said the massive referendum "No" votes would have an impact on the pace of further expansion, although none called into question Turkey's agreed Oct. 3 start date for accession talks.

The EU summit later this week in Brussels will largely be devoted to the crisis surrounding the proposed European constitution and to EU finances.

Source: Xinhua