European press review

Today's papers reflect on implications of EU enlargement, several of them focusing on the Turkish bid in particular.

Spanish dailies scrutinise the premier's first public statement on the tanker disaster.

In Russia, papers comment on a joint Nato-Russia security conference held in Moscow.

EU enlargement

The Danish press gives prominent coverage to the enlargement of the EU ahead of the Copenhagen summit.

Tabloid Ekstra Bladet says that Cyprus, Slovakia and Estonia - which have accepted the EU's conditions for membership - "have thrown in the towel in the fight with the EU to wring more money out of the union in the enlargement negotiations".

The scene is set for a war of nerves at the summit in Copenhagen

Jyllands Posten

Another applicant, Poland, has been given "a strong warning" by Danish Foreign Minister after it turned up in Brussels with a long list of demands, the paper says.

Jyllands-Posten says Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is "under time pressure".

"The scene is set for a war of nerves at the summit in Copenhagen. Technical problems threatened a planned champagne party on Friday evening."

Berlingske Tidende says the negotiations are "in crisis".

It dismisses calls to move the summit out of Copenhagen in order to avoid the kind of disorder seen in Gothenburg and Genoa.

National agenda

Swiss papers, meanwhile, worry how EU enlargement might affect the country's immigration laws.

Geneva's Le Temps points out that the right-wing Swiss People's Party's (UDC) opposes plans to extend the right to work to nationals from new EU member countries.

The paper says that the UDC is opposed to any such move before 2009, when the party could still call a national referendum opposing its definitive adoption.

It accuses the party of hypocrisy, saying it accepts the presence of currently illegal workers on Swiss farms from potential new member countries.

Turkey's EU bid

Several European papers mull Turkey's membership bid after the leader of the governing party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused the EU of double standards.

Austria's Der Standard is in two minds about it.

(Allowing Turkey to join the EU would be) taking on too much

Der Standard

By allowing Turkey to join, the European Union would be "taking on too much," a commentary says.

"Enlargement to the east is an historic task stretching well into the next decade, which will take up all energies," the commentary adds.

But a second commentary describes the acceptance of Turkish membership as a "duty" and a "chance".

Open the door to Turkey

Copenhagen's Information

Copenhagen's Information, however, feels the time is right for the EU to give Turkey a date for accession negotiations to begin.

In an editorial entitled "Open the door to Turkey", the paper says the current lack of agreement on the issue within the EU means the union continuing its "inelegant balancing act, where it says both 'yes' and 'no' to Turkey at one and the same time".

Sydsvenska Dagbladet feels the Franco-German proposal is "well-balanced".

"Please give Turkey a positive signal," the paper says.

"It must be said that the Justice and Development Party has embarked on a judicious wave of reforms and that a country strongly coloured by Islam is welcome in the EU."

Spanish oil disaster

Papers in Spain scrutinise Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar's first public comments on the sinking of the oil tanker, the Prestige, off the north-west coast of Spain.

The premier has admitted that "the government may have been slow in reacting" to the disaster, Madrid's ABC says.

El Mundo says the prime minister has accepted that "mistakes" had been made and highlights the fact that he had said they now "have to be prepared for anything".

Meanwhile, El Pais says that Mr Aznar defended his government in the face of what he called "the worst ecological disaster ever in Spain".

Goodbye to Cold War

Nato Secretary-General George Robertson's participation in a Moscow conference on "the role of the military in combating terrorism" draws much comment in Russian papers.

The Cold War is in the past, now it is just the weather which is cold

Rossiyskaya Gazeta

"Nato has joined the USSR, the Cold War is in the past, now it is just the weather which is cold," Rossiyskaya Gazeta proclaims on its front page.

As if to illustrate its point, it juxtaposes a picture of Robertson in fur hat and winter coat, with another picture of a girl dressed only in a bikini taking a dip in a frozen Moscow lake.

The paper says Russian and foreign specialists who took part stressed that "the creation of mobile, well trained and well equipped forces is vitally important to common success in the struggle against terrorism".

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