European press review

Western newspapers look at Europe's place in the world, while Easterners consider their place in the West.

In Russia, meanwhile, big business fights it out in an electoral spat in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk.

EU entries

Austria's Die Presse analyses Europe's dream of becoming one of the world's great players.

"Times are ripe for more European influence, but Europe is far from ready", the daily concludes, blaming the European Union's lack of a coherent foreign policy.

"There is a prevailing lack of structure and a disagreement that is actually turning Europe as a whole into a lightweight," the paper says.

Le Monde in Paris looks at the way the EU deals with asylum-seekers, starting with the Sangatte refugee camp in northern France, where thousands of asylum-seekers hoping to travel to Britain have been housed.

The paper says the "huge hangar" symbolizes a "closed off and selfish Europe, which is incapable of coordinating its immigration policies".

It praises the decision to close the camp, and the move to let the United Nations decide who is and isn't a refugee.

But it adds that the "main thing remains to be done".

That is the "creation of a community right of asylum and new rules for welcoming refugees, which respect the values on which the European Union was built".

In Germany, Die Welt speaks out against granting Turkey membership of the EU.

It says that a decision on accession negotiations must be made by year-end, and adds that Washington wants to bring Ankara - a key ally in the confrontation with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - closer to the West.

Nevertheless, it argues, the EU governments should oppose the plan, because Turkey's membership would change the EU radically - "more than any previous enlargement, and more than the imminent enlargement towards the east".

Election feud

Further east, there's a political - or is it commercial? - dispute over who should be governor of Russia's vast, mineral-rich Krasnoyarsk region.

The first ever open clash of the leading business groups

Izvestiya

In last week's run-off vote, Alexander Khloponin, a district administrator and former head of metals giant Norilsk Nickel, defeated Alexander Uss, the head of Krasnoyarsk's regional assembly who was thought to be backed by Russian Aluminium.

But the regional election commission has now annulled the election, citing numerous illegalities.

In Izvestiya, however, the head of the national Central Election Commission, Aleksandr Veshnyakov, is quoted as saying that the decision is "dubious, to put it mildly".

The broadsheet goes on to quote a political analyst as saying that "this is the first ever open clash of the leading business groups."

Andrey Ryabov adds that the outcome "will depend on a decision to be taken by the Kremlin."

Moskovskiy Komsomolets predicts which way it will go.

Reporting that the annulment decision can be appealed in court within 10 days, it reads between the lines of comments by Mr Veshnyakov and pro-Kremlin politicians.

Mr Khloponin will remain in the governor's chair, it says.

Looking west

In Romania, newspapers report a more successful coming-together of east and west.

Intelligence services are preparing for Nato integration

Azi

The daily Azi reports that representatives of western intelligence services have met colleagues in Romania - a Nato candidate country - to discuss cooperation, organization and intelligence gathering.

"Intelligence services are preparing for Nato integration", the paper announces in a headline.

"Nato candidate countries should continue their efforts to reform their intelligence services, especially through modern legislation, democratic political control and openness towards mass-media", it adds.

On the same issue, Cotidianul points out the need for the Romanian intelligence services to get rid of former security officers involved in political repression during communist regime under former President Nicolae Ceausescu's dictatorship.

The report quotes the director of the Romanian Intelligence Service, Radu Timofte, as saying that the "removal of the former Securitate officers considered to be incompatible with Nato criteria is the problem of Romania's secret services".

Across the border in Hungary, the government is also looking westwards.

Nepszabadsag daily reacts to a recent announcement that the Hungarian Socialist Party, the senior government coalition party, is planning to change its name to the Hungarian Social Democratic Party.

The paper welcomes "the gesture", suggesting it is more important in Eastern Europe than in the West.

"Those parties which did not have to chose between the Soviet system and democracy have never had a name crisis like this," the paper says.

But although the paper understands why the party wants to shed certain elements of the past, it sees more importance in the party's future direction.

And it doubts "whether there is a model for social democracy in Europe" now.

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