EU: The European Commission may use the harshest weapon it has in its political armoury today and postpone naming an exact date for when Bulgaria and Romania may join the EU.
Brussels is publishing two reports on the countries' progress towards EU membership today but the hottest issue has been whether it will recommend that Bucharest and Sofia join the EU in January as planned.
An internal commission memo leaked to Reuters yesterday stated: "The progress in all the fields, and especially in areas of 'serious concern', will be evaluated in September by the Commission."
Postponing a decision on the issue until September would buy Brussels some time to squeeze more reforms from the two EU hopefuls.
A concrete date today, on the other hand, could result in Bulgaria and Romania easing up on their commitments, especially in the fight against corruption, an area where the commission has expressed strong concern.
Bulgaria, particularly, has come under increasing pressure to continue its reform path - a humiliating turnaround for the country which for so long prided itself on being the better prepared of the two.
However, the highly political decision is only likely to be finalised at the very last minute during a commissioners' meeting this afternoon.
According to EU officials, the 25 commissioners are divided on the best course of action, with enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn in favour of not setting a date to keep Brussels' upper hand.
For their part, Romanian and Bulgarian officials have been waiting in a state of feverish anticipation for the commission's report.
A delay would give a sense of "prolonging the agony" admitted one official as in September the commission could still recommend that membership is delayed by one year, until 2008.
Any recommendation by the commission, today or in September, for a delay in EU membership would have to be agreed by all 25 member states in the case of Bulgaria and by a qualified majority in Romania's case.
The discrepancy reflects an earlier stage of the process when Romania was the far weaker candidate country.
Meanwhile, in Brussels yesterday, EU foreign ministers said they were committed to a "diplomatic solution" with Iran over its nuclear ambitions.
It said the "bold" package it was offering Tehran contained "a proliferation-proof nuclear technology element".
External relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner also said commission officials were working on a mechanism that would allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to the Palestinian people, bypassing the Hamas-led government.
Aid to the Palestinian Authority has been frozen since the government took office last month. Hamas is on the EU's terrorist list but the bloc has been stung by criticism that it is starving the Palestinian people.