EU leaders agreed that their next summit, in Lisbon in March, will be devoted to the issue of European competitiveness by focusing on ways to promote "employment, economic reform, and social cohesion in the framework of a knowledge-based society", writes Paddy Smyth.
Serious concern was expressed by leaders during their working dinner on Friday night at the pace of reconstruction in Kosovo and Bosnia. But they strongly endorsed the establishment of a regional Stability Pact and commissioned a major report on the political and economic prospects for the region.
Regretting the failure of the Seattle World Trade Organisation meeting, the leaders reiterated their commitment to the multilateral trading system and pledged themselves again to a new comprehensive trade round.
The decision of President Hafez al Assad of Syria and the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, to resume negotiations on the Syria track of the Middle East peace process was welcomed as "courageous".
The summit "looked forward to early agreement between Israel and Syria which should pave the way for resuming negotiations and for a solution also on the Lebanese track."
The summit adopted a "common strategy" on Ukraine under the terms of the Amsterdam Treaty which allows for "strategies" to be adopted by unanimity and then to be implemented by majority.
The EU already has a common strategy on only one other issue, Russia, which it agreed to review in the light of the Chechnya events.