European press review

The European Union summit in the Belgian city of Ghent prompts several leader-writers to reflect that the present crisis has given a boost to European unity. Others, however, point to signs that this unity is less than complete.

Berlin's Die Tageszeitung believes that the war against terrorism could drive European Union states to co-operate so closely in the field of security that the vision of a "State of Europe" becomes a distinct possibility.

Surely it was never one of Osama Bin Laden's goals to be inducted into the pantheon of those who have fostered European unification

Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung

This view is echoed by a commentator in the French weekly L'Express. He believes that European unity is being strengthened by the international crisis because it has brought the EU member states to the realisation "that their interests, their reflexes and their foreign policies all converge".

"Give it a few more years," he adds, "and federalism will turn from utopia into blueprint."

The same point is taken up by the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"Surely it was never one of Osama Bin Laden's goals to be inducted into the pantheon of those who have fostered European unification," the paper says. "Be that as it may, it was inevitable that the threat associated with his name would have repercussions on that great political undertaking."

After decades of peace, it adds, Europe "had largely forgotten why it wanted to unite". But the 11 September has reminded it "that peace and prosperity are fragile commodities".

"So the Union's leaders have now called for closer internal cooperation and a more outwardly united front", even if for the first time, the paper concludes.

Europe: Some see cracks...

The French Liberation expects the Ghent summit to "reiterate unfaltering solidarity with the United States as it continues its strikes on Afghanistan". But the paper believes that, to quote its own words, "cracks are beginning to appear on the (European) facade".

"The human costs of this war are causing growing unease in certain political quarters in Europe," the paper says.

The unease is greatest, it explains, among the Greens and Communists in the Socialist-led French government coalition, and also among Germany's Greens.

And in Belgium, the paper adds, which is currently presiding over the European Union, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt is "under pressure" from the socialists and ecologists in his government "who have demanded a review of the United States's strategy".

...and snubs...

The Italian L'Unita sees the pre-summit meeting being held between the British, French and German leaders to discuss the Afghanistan crisis as "another snub" for Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, not to mention the other 11 EU partners thus sidelined.

"The European common foreign and security policy," the paper says, "is still very lacking in its 'common' component."

Prime Minister Berlusconi, it adds, "sought to play down his lack of an invitation to the meeting" and justified his absence "on the grounds that he had already recently met the German chancellor". This, the paper recalls, "was the famous Berlin meeting at which he proclaimed the West's superiority" over Islam.

"The snub appears no smaller" in the light of his explanation, the paper remarks.

The dreaded R-word

Looking at matters from a different angle, Munich's Sueddeutsche Zeitung expects today's summit to lack the courage to look economic reality in the eye.

It fears the Union's leaders may still be hoping that the terrorist attacks in the USA will not have as negative an impact on the economy as many experts forecast.

"The word recession is taboo in the European Union," the paper says. However it sees discord ahead. It says that a French package aimed at boosting France's economy will put pressure on Germany to follow suit.

"So far Berlin has refused to provide a package to stimulate the economy," it notes, but it wonders how long German Finance Minister Hans Eichel will be able to adhere to his course of financial prudence if the other Union members all go in the opposite direction.

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