European press review

Today's European papers concentrate on the compromise reached by the European Union and Russia on Kaliningrad.

The occupation of a church in Calais by migrants barred from the Sangatte refugee centre near the Channel Tunnel receives some coverage.

And Russia reacts coolly to the expulsion of its diplomats from Sweden.

Squaring the circle on Kaliningrad

Unsurprisingly, in view of the historical connection with East Prussia, German newspapers pay close attention to the EU-Russia agreement reached in Brussels on transit traffic between Russia and its westernmost outpost of Kaliningrad.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung says that, despite deep differences of opinion over Chechnya, the two sides still managed to reach agreement.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says the agreement satisfies a fundamental principle of Russian policy - Russian citizens must be able to travel from one part of national territory to another without a visa.

The EU has only made a symbolic concession to the Russian wish.

Die Welt

"The solution," it adds, "comes very close to 'squaring the circle'."

The EU will, under certain conditions, accept - "in close consultation with the Lithuanian government - a visa-like 'document for easier transit' through Lithuanian territory", it says.

The Berliner Zeitung says that the EU has gone "a long way" to meet Russia's demands.

"The EU has only made a symbolic concession to the Russian wish," Hamburg's Die Welt says.

Berlin's Der Tagesspiegel notes that "Moscow is not at all keen for the enclave to be Europeanised" fearing that this "will gradually uncouple Kaliningrad from the motherland".

The EU, the paper adds, cannot "allow Koenigsberg to become a slum area between future EU members, Lithuania and Poland" nor can it "provide hundreds of thousands of Russians with a free ticket to pass unsupervised through EU territory".

Denmark's Berlingske Tidende, however, describes the agreement as "sensible, important and impressive".

'Humiliation'

"The problem of Kaliningrad is resolved," Russia's liberal daily Gazeta writes.

Russians can now travel to Kaliningrad "without visas", it hails.

The heavyweight broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta notes that Lithuania's right "to exercise the necessary control and refuse entry into its territory is registered in the statement".

The conservative newspaper Trud quotes the Russian presidential envoy for Kaliningrad Region, Dmitriy Rogozin, as describing the introduction of visas for Kaliningrad's residents, planned by the EU after Lithuania and Poland join it in 2004, is "humiliating and unacceptable".

Russia, Chechnya and the EU

Swedish broadsheet Sydsvenska Dagbladet calls for the EU to put increased pressure on Russia over Chechnya.

It recalls that "during the Swedish presidency of the EU the union succeeded in including a phrase in a mutual resolution with Russia that there must be a negotiated settlement to the conflict."

"If Russia does not show real will to end the war in Chechnya through negotiations," it says, "there should be an acid reaction after all."

France's Liberation agrees, advising Europe to remind Russia that "colonial wars" are "never won".

Sweden expels Russian diplomats

Russia's influential Izvestiya comments on the expulsion of two Russian diplomats from Sweden for allegedly trying to obtain classified information from the Swedish firm Ericsson.

It notes that "Moscow does not agree" that the two were involved "in activity not in keeping with their diplomatic status" and "threatens to take similar measures" in retaliation.

The paper notes that while "Russia has refrained from any kind of comment on the espionage controversy in Stockholm", the heads of the Russian intelligence service "had not denied that our intelligence service abroad is working in the economic sphere among others".

The official Rossiyskaya Gazeta says that Sweden's decision had "caused puzzlement and regret".

Church occupation

As dozens of refugees barred from the Sangatte refugee centre near the French port of Calais continue to occupy a church in the town, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy tells Paris-based Le Figaro that there are "places in reception centres across the country to receive the foreigners".

It is time the EU drew up a common immigration and asylum policy.

Le Monde

"No-one is being forced to wander the streets," he adds.

The minister describes the closure of the Red Cross centre ahead of schedule as "thought through".

Le Monde says "it is time the EU drew up a common immigration and asylum policy."

Hungarian premier's US visit

Hungary's Magyar Hirlap sums up Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy's recent visit to the USA as "success in America".

The success of the prime minister, who has been under attack for his past under Communism, was "an open slap in the face" for former right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his policies, the paper says.

The paper says that he met eight members of the US Administration "as if everyone wanted to see the man who brought about more than a change of government but less than regime change in Hungary" and was moved to "the Blair House".

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