The European Commission is agonising over how harshly to criticise central European states due to join the European Union next May for failing to implement EU law when it issues final progress reports next week.
EU officials are concerned that entry preparations are far behind schedule, especially in Poland - by far the biggest of the 10 acceding countries - and this is the last chance for Brussels to use its leverage to shake things up.
"The reports will be highly critical, particularly of Poland, but the Commission is split over whether to send some countries specific warning letters," one EU source said.
The EU executive departments responsible for sensitive issues such as food safety, agriculture and the internal market are pressing for tougher warnings, he said.
"There is no doubt in reality that especially Poland lags behind, with an array of problems including veterinary health, food safety, border controls, reform of the civil service and the environment," the source said.
Some want the Commission to explicitly warn Warsaw it may have to trigger safeguard clauses to exclude Polish produce from the EU's internal market, or deny it access to regional or farm subsidies, because of hygiene and administrative shortcomings.
But EU Enlargement Commissioner Mr Guenter Verheugen, whose office is in charge of writing the reports, firmly opposes such a warning, arguing it would be politically counter-productive.
"The other DGs (Directorates-General) say this is not going to work and it would be a disaster for the EU if nothing happens before May 1. But Verheugen says that for political reasons, we cannot do this to Poland," the source said.
A final decision will be taken on November 5th, when the whole 20-member EU executive adopts and issues the progress reports.