THE European Commission slipped up yesterday and said publicly what many of its officials have been saying in private - that no new country was likely to join the European Union before 2002.
In a 30 point fact sheet on the EU's expansion plans the Commission said that, because of the complicated nature of the process, "the earliest realistic date for the first accessions is likely to be no earlier than 2002."
It later backtracked, saying the fact sheet did not represent the official stance of the Commission.
"It was an erroneous version which contains... a regrettable contradiction with the official position of the Commission as to the probable date of the first accession by the new member states," the Commission said in a statement.
The correction showed how sensitive the issue is at a time when some eastern European countries - led by Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary - are beating at the door to come in.
The slip was even more unfortunate in the light of Franco German eagerness to see the EU embrace some former communist countries at the start of the millennium.
At a seminar on Tuesday on the EU and NATO's separate enlargement plans, the External Relations Commissioner, Mr Hans van den Broek, said he was not allowed to talk about timing.
But somehow the timing went by mistake into the fact sheet made available to reporters yesterday.
The Commission said that its official position was that the next expansion of the EU should take place "as soon as possible" and that it could not give a date because this depended on several factors.
Among those are progress in the EU's inter governmental conference review of its workings and on exactly how prepared individual countries are to join.
Only recently President Chirac of France told Hungary he saw no reason why it and other central European neighbours could not join by 2000.
The Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary - the most economically advanced applicants - hung on every word recently as Mr Chirac and the French Foreign Minister, Mr Herve de Charette, said a target date of 2000 was achievable if there was "political will".
President Chirac, trying to overturn the east's vision of France as opposed to their integration into western institutions, is championing EU enlargement into former communist Europe.
He counts on the backing of France's ally of modern times, the German Chancellor, Dr Kohl.
Dr Kohl wound up a landmark visit to the Czech Republic yesterday pledging German support for Czech membership of the EU and NATO.
As the shining economic stars of the former communist bloc, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have lobbied hard to get in on their own merits and not wait for struggling countries like Bulgaria and Romania to catch up. The three Baltic States - Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania - have also applied, along with Slovenin and Slovakia.
Warsaw, Prague and Budapest are also seen as favourites to be invited for a first wave of separate expansion talks at NATO at an alliance summit set for July 8th and 9th in Madrid.
Before he left Prague, Dr Kohl also paid his respects at the grave of a dissident cardinal and had lunch with President Vaclav Havel. Dr Kohl visited the grave of Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek who for 40 years championed religious freedom in Czechoslovaki, and held talks with Cardinal Miloslav Vlk.