EU leaders have also admitted that efforts to revive the faltering EU constitution, rejected by French and Dutch voters a year ago, have made little progress with some observers delaring it dead in the water.
However the EU’s plans to expand further into southeastern Europe and beyond will go ahead.
"We should not be blocked until we have the constitutional issue settled," said European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso.
French and Dutch voters plunged the EU into turmoil in June 2005 when they rejected the proposed constitution.
The charter is designed to facilitate group decision-making as the bloc expands ever eastwards.
Progress delayed
A report is expected to be submitted to the EU summit in June next year assessing the state of discussions on the constitution.
According to a draft copy seen by AFP it "will serve as the basis for further decisions on how to continue the reform process, it being understood that the necessary steps to that effect will have been taken during the second semester of 2008 at the latest."
The institutional blueprint was designed to prevent a decision-making gridlock in the EU which expanded from 15 to 25 members in 2004.
Romania and Bulgaria are hoping to join next year and there are several other countries also eager to sign up.
But real progress is not expected until after elections next year to choose a successor to French President Jacques Chirac, once the bloc's key players but widely seen as a lame duck.
However, German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has recently raised hopes that she might be able to end the constitutional impasse.
"I believe we should lay the foundations by making clear to people that Europe is needed," she said. "Then we will tell people again and again, in an open way, that we need this Europe and for that we need the constitution."