European press review

Enthusiasm for the euro dominates the second day of its existence as cash, even, it appears, among the neutral and non-EU Swiss.

But an Italian daily accuses the Berlusconi government of spoiling the celebrations.

Questions are asked about the exact role of the German naval force now sailing under the flag of the US-led coalition against terrorism.

And Turkey's nomination as successor to Britain as leader of the international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan is seen as a positive move.

Euro caution

France's leading daily Le Monde acknowledges that the introduction of the euro appears to have passed off smoothly, but it urges caution in the wake of what it calls Tuesday's "big bang".

"Even though the implementation of monetary union was a fine performance," the paper says, "it remains unfinished business."

A single currency presupposes not only a central bank but also - if not a state - at least a common economic policy for the region where the currency is used, the paper notes.

This is why it believes that the lack of a European economic policy has led to a "credibility deficit", and this in turn has resulted in "several major disappointments, if not failures".

Since its launch three years ago, the paper recalls, the euro has lost over 25 per cent of its value against the dollar. And "the US dollar is still the world's only true reserve currency" it adds.

The Italian L'Unita finds "a single discordant note" in what it sees as a positive welcome from those in the euro zone.

This jarring note, the paper explains, came from Italy, where Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi did not see fit to organize any celebrations nor even make a "symbolic personal gesture" to mark the occasion.

"Indifference, aloofness and even alarmism: such were the reactions of the Rome government and of the centre-right majority on the day the euro was born," the paper says.

To illustrate its contention, it quotes Mr Berlusconi's Northern League ally and minister without portfolio Umberto Bossi as saying that he is "not bothered with the euro at all", and Defence Minister Antonio Martino, as believing that "there is a strong risk that the euro experiment may end in failure".

Unexpected joy

Berlin's Die Welt is struck by what it sees as the "atypical and quite un-German" manner in which the country has embraced the euro.

"We must be about due for a new set of cliches about the Germans, their mentality and their money," the paper says.

The fact that Germany asked for the longest overlap between the old and new currencies, it adds, shows that "the government must have thought that the Germans' farewell to the mark would be a tough, tearful and lengthy one".

The enthusiasm for the euro, the paper says, "is a pleasant surprise for a country which always seems to be in a somewhat worse mood than most in Europe".

The Swiss Tribune De Geneve says that people queued in their thousands in Zurich, Basle and Geneva to change Swiss francs into the "almost magical" euro banknotes.

"These," the paper says, "were the Swiss europhiles in the best sense of the word, members of the generation who lived through WW2... and who profoundly prayed that such a bloodbath never happened again."

"Europe's single currency is well and truly here," it adds, and its advent is "one in the eye for monetary nationalisms".

And "even if Switzerland is keeping its franc for the time being", the paper notes, "the enthusiasm of these past few days shows that it is not indifferent to the historic adventure of the birth of a new currency common to all its neighbours".

"A new dynamic is born, and it is something of a miracle," the paper concludes.

All at sea?

A German naval force with some 750 crew sailed off to the Indian Ocean on Wednesday "on what is potentially the most dangerous mission in the country's postwar history", Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports.

It explains that the force's task in the US-led campaign against terrorism will be "to secure sea lanes" and "interdict supply and escape routes of terrorist organizations".

A separate commentary in the same daily shows concern about the mission.

"What will the group's mission be? it asks. "What will it be allowed to do... to monitor ocean traffic and interdict terrorist supply lines?"

"Is this just an operation to show the flag," the paper wonders, "or is it really directed against Somalia, where the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama Bin Laden is thought to have bases?"

"Vice-Admiral Lutz Feldt," it notes, assured sailors' families that "there were good reasons why many things had not been finalized".

"But who will remember these soothing words," the paper warns, "should a German ship fall prey to the kind of terrorist attack that struck the destroyer USS. Cole in the waters off the Horn of Africa in October 2000?"

Turkey's turn

"Ankara is honoured and Berlin is relieved" says the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung of Turkey's nomination to succeed Britain at the head of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

The paper suggests that Ankara was as keen on the mandate as Germany was unkeen, because Turkey's "shaky government" sees such a high-profile role as enhancing its case for future EU membership.

Moreover, its non-involvement in the conflict so far "is now proving an advantage since Turkish soldiers made no enemies in Afghanistan", it points out.

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