Serbia gets EU candidate status, Romania gets nothing

EU leaders on Thursday (1 March) with 13 little words took a step hard to imagine in 1999, when Nato planes were bombing Belgrade, or even this time last year, when Serbia was still sheltering war crimes fugitives from The Hague.

"The European Council today agreed to grant Serbia the status of candidate country," they said in a formal communique at a summit in Brussels.

The next step, opening accession talks, could come in December if Belgrade cleans up on corruption and keeps im...