The prior art considered by the examiner might comprise documents (European or international patent applications) for which the accorded date of filing may still be under review before the EPO. This might be the case, for instance, when:

The examiner checks whether a final decision on the accorded date of filing has already been taken before considering the documents as being state of the art under Art. 54(3). If the date of filing has not yet been established, the examiner temporarily deals with the documents (if relevant for assessing the patentability of the claimed subject-matter) as if their accorded date of filing were correct, revisiting the issue at a later point in time.