Brussels, 22/05/2001 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission President, Romano Prodi, underlined, on Tuesday, his great satisfaction with the "substantial" progress made by Poland in the accession negotiations, asserting that there was no reason to doubt that Poland would not be capable of completing its preparations for accession in accordance with the set timetable. Poland is a large and important country, which makes the necessary reforms difficult and complex. Though I am pleased to see that the efforts are now bearing evident fruits, as the progress achieved by Poland is substantial. Poland finds itself in the front line among the candidate countries, said Mr Prodi to the press, after a meeting with the Polish Prime Minister Jerzy Buzek. The latter refused to comment over the announcement made, on Monday in Warsaw, by a high ranking civil servant according to which Poland had postponed the cut-off date for accession on 1 January 2003 to 1 January 2004, but he indicated that 2003 remains the cut-off date for completing the internal preparations. As for cohesion, Mr Buzek insisted over the need not to discriminate against the new member countries (see other article).