The European Commission might avoid mentioning a specific date for the accession of Romania and Bulgaria in the EU in its report on the progress of the two countries due to be published on May 16, according to Bulgarian news agency Focus News.

The two countries hope to receive a European Commission recommendation for their accession on January 1, 2007, but a European safeguard clause my postpone it until 2008 if enough progress will be found as lacking.

The head of the EC Delegation to Bucharest, Jonathan Scheele, told Hotnews.ro that the conclusions of the report would only be known when the document is published in Brussels and that the Delegation would not commment on media reports until then.

Focus News quotes Austrian newspaper Der Standard, according to which the Commission will not specify the accession date in its May 16 report and will postpone the decision in this regard until autumn.