European press review

The European papers are still getting to grips with an outbreak of "the vision thing" from EU leaders, but they also find time to look at Nazi slave labour payments, the explosive situation in Indonesia and Amnesty International's 40th birthday.

Europe gets the 'vision thing'

The Spanish daily El Pais says French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's speech on Europe shows the "worrying distance" between Paris and Berlin on the future of the European Union.

It contrasts Mr Jospin's plans for a "federation of nation-states" with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's pure federalism, which it describes as "a cheap replica" of the German system of laender.

The paper also notes that while the Germans are stressing the need to "renationalize" certain policy areas, Mr Jospin wants greater European solidarity, an "economic government" and more social compensation measures.

Recalling that a year ago French President Jacques Chirac said Europe needed a "pioneering group" to spur European integration, the paper argues that the recent spate of proposals show such unity is far from a reality.

It concludes that the Jospin blueprint is "insufficient", despite some "novelties", and says it is time for Spain to set out its own vision for the EU.

The Hungarian daily Magyar Hirlap is urging its political class to do the same.

With an eye on the 2002 elections it says that: "It would be good if Hungarian politicians, from both government and opposition parties, were to express an opinion on the submissions ... since before joining the EU the voter has the right to know what kind of Europe they are heading for."

The basic principles of Lionel Jospin's version could well be preferable for Budapest, in Magyar Hirlap's view, because it "gives priority to a federation of nations over a melting-pot-federation" and at the same time "protects Europe's European quality vis-a-vis the excessive spread of globalization".

An editorial in the French Le Nouvel Observateur notes that, "if all the conditions set by Lionel Jospin for the construction of his ideal Europe were to be met," there are grounds for "fearing that nothing important will be done until the 15 - soon to be 27 - member states commit themselves to social-democratic programmes that would place Tony Blair to the right of centre, and people like Jose Maria Aznar and Berlusconi in the far-right".

"Because what Jospin is basically saying is that Europe will be left-wing or it will be nothing," the paper adds. "Has he forgotten that Europe was founded by Christian-Democrats?"

Germany makes amends

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung notes that when the Bundestag rules later today that German businesses have protection from future lawsuits in the United States, "nothing stands in the way of compensating about 1.5 million ageing foreign slave labourers and other victims of the Nazis".

While acknowledging that "many German companies, particularly the big conglomerates, were involved in the crimes of the Nazi regime," the paper contends that "the financial base of German industry does not come from slave labour, as is often claimed.

"It was the postwar achievement of rebuilding the country that provided economic strength, not slave labour."

Over DM140bn ($62bn) will have been paid to former slave labourers and other victims of the Nazis.

"That is certainly a respectable achievement," the paper says, "but it cannot absolve Germany from its moral responsibility."

Turkey ruffles Nato's feathers

Germany's Frankfurter Rundschau warns that by opposing Nato's plan to cooperate with the EU's rapid reaction force, Turkey is putting itself in "a rather dangerous position".

The paper says Ankara's insistence that Nato cannot give the EU guaranteed access to the alliance's military planning "harms both Turkey and the alliance".

"If Turkey seriously believes that it can selfishly block the deal, it has misjudged the importance of this project," it adds, alluding to Ankara's concern that the EU force could become involved in areas where Turkey has interests.

The daily concludes by pointing out that Turkey has only two options - either to give in, which could harm the interests of its own people, or to block the Nato-EU deal, which will harm the alliance because "it can remain strong only if its interests dovetail with the EU's security policies".

Indonesia on 'bloodbath' alert

As supporters of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid continue to pour into Jakarta in their thousands for Wednesday's decisive parliamentary debate on his future, the French daily Liberation sees his coming impeachment as "practically a foregone conclusion," and fears bloody consequences may follow.

The president's supporters are "threatening a bloodbath if he is forced to step down", the paper says. "Many claim to have magical powers protecting them from bullets."

This claim may soon be put to the test, for, as the paper notes, "the 27,000 troops due to be deployed in Jakarta today... have orders to use live ammunition if the demonstrators attempt to storm the parliament building".

Amnesty: Still needed 40 years on

The French newspaper Le Monde devotes its editorial to the 40th anniversary of Amnesty International.

"With a flame surrounded by barbed wire as its symbol [and] the 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as its only bible... Amnesty has become the world's most famous and influential humanitarian organization," the paper notes.

Its annual report, it adds, is "a veritable overview of the state of the world as far as all forms of repression are concerned".

"All systems are tempted to abuse their powers, and even certain democracies in the northern hemisphere... have on occasion felt [Amnesty's] wrath," the paper says.

The organization "is certainly not beyond reproach", it adds.

"It has made mistakes in the past, and admitted as much". Be that as it may, "40 years on Amnesty International is more necessary than ever", the paper concludes.

The president and the flying saucers

London's The Independent is puzzled by a report that President George W Bush's advisers have warned him that he should build a high-security laboratory to protect the planet from extraterrestrial life-forms.

"The advisers point out that the danger from an unknown biohazard, though low, is 'not zero'," the paper notes.

"True enough," it agrees. "A zero hazard is, after all, a philosophical non-starter... but if we stick for a moment with grubby real life, we can perhaps agree that (despite news of old water on Mars and all that) it is not very plausible that extraterrestrials pose a serious threat to life as we know it.

"But to bring things back to Earth, may we humbly suggest that a special lab to protect the world from lunatic proposals (tearing up environmental treaties, say) might be more useful?" the paper concludes.

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.