By Guto Thomas BBC Wales correspondent

Wales was left off a UK map on a EU reference book

Just this week, Tony Blair said he's sorry about (some) of the intelligence that supported the case for the war in Iraq.

David Beckham has apologised to everyone in English football (but not to the Welsh player he fouled) for admitting that he deliberately attempted to get a booking in the Wales versus England World Cup qualifying match.

And now, in the Welsh assembly's European Affairs Committee, Assembly Members were informed that Eurostat have officially and unreservedly apologised for air-brushing Wales from the European Union.

'Glaring omission'

The First Minister, Rhodri Morgan, read a section of a letter from the European Commission to the committee, and confided that he had never before read such a "grovelling letter of apology" from any European institution.

Given that Mr Morgan used to work for the European Commission itself, then this was an informed assessment indeed.

The letter was unequivocal in its apology for "the unacceptable and glaring omission of Wales", that the distribution of the publication had been temporarily blocked, and that the commission hoped that this "technical error" would not harm "the excellent and well-established relations that exist between the people of Wales and the European Union."

In football terms, that's about 3-0 in favour of Wales (including own goals).

After the furore caused by Eurostat's blunder, it was generally assumed by political commentators that a) this had given Wales more publicity in European issues than money could buy; and that b) nothing like this could ever happen again.

Declined invitation

Alas, Europe-related snubs are aplenty - in Cardiff Bay at least.

There were three specific revelations which support the case that AMs seem to be failing to punch their political weight in matters European.

First, the Dutch Government (which currently holds the presidency of the European Union) declined an invitation to come to the assembly in order to explain the objectives of their presidency.

That would have been fair enough, you might think, had not a similar invitation from the Scottish Parliament been accepted.

Wry smiles

Secondly, there was supposed to be a meeting next week, of the various European affairs committees in different UK parliaments and assemblies.

There were wry smiles, when the AMs were told that this had to be cancelled, because the Scots and the Lords had other things to do.

And finally, the esteemed AMs tasked with the responsibility of making sure that Wales and her interests are at the very heart of European decision-making, have even managed to snub themselves.

Having arranged a special meeting of the European Committee, to be held in Brussels before Christmas, the whole thing has now been called off, because the committee's own members said they couldn't go - which presumably means they have to apologise to themselves.

How many more apologies can we take?