The European Commission was severely embarrassed yesterday (22 January) when a fact sheet was released to the press

Date: 23/01/1997

which stated that the EU's next enlargement was unlikely to take place before the year 2002. The Commission was forced to retract the statement, calling it a “regrettable contradiction” of its official position that no dates can be given due to the complexity of the enlargement process. Apparently the 'erroneous version' had not been thoroughly checked before release.