Croatia to officially join eurozone as EU summit wraps

European leaders, who worried that winter will be a tough one for their citizens, pledged deeper cooperation and coordination on Friday to tackle the energy crisis.

The two-day European Council summit in Brussels ended with the 27 heads of state tasking the Commission to continue its work to identify ways to curb rising energy prices - including through possible price caps -- or to secure alternative sources of supply at affordable prices.

The Council meanwhile, was called upon to take any appropriate measures to ensure closer energy coordination between member states.

This comes after several leaders warned that a difficult winter might be ahead as Russia has totally or partially cut deliveries of fossil fuels to 12 member states.

On a lighter note, leaders voted to allow Croatia to become the twentieth member of the eurozone with the single currency to officially come into circulation in the country of 4 million on 1 January 2023.

Finally, the EU vowed to do everything possible in the next few days to ensure that progress in the membership application of North Macedonia and Albania can take place after lawmakers in Sofia backed a French proposal to lift Bulgaria's veto over Skopje accession.

Here how the second EU Council summit day unfolded