European press review

The impact of the European Union summit agreement to admit 10 new members continues to exercise leader-writers on both sides of Europe's old dividing-line.

Meanwhile, in France, newspapers look at the country's increasing military involvement in the Ivory Coast conflict and at President Jacques Chirac's apparent escape from investigation over corruption scandals.

High EU price

Newspapers in Hungary are unenthusiastic about the price their country paid to secure accession to the EU.

"The Copenhagen summit showed that the EU is guided not by fine principles but by hard financial interests, and that those who can blackmail others are not prepared to give a cent in concessions," Magyar Nemzet comments in a piece headlined "The lost victory in Copenhagen".

Even where the agreement is welcomed, as in Nepszabadsag, regret is expressed at the "bitter taste" left by the "unfair" terms that the EU offered its new entrants.

Europe is a society of peoples who have forged common values over many centuries - Turkey does not belong to this Europe

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

A commentator writing in the Czech Mlada Fronta Dnes contrasts reactions to the agreement and wonders why Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla did not follow the example of his Central European counterparts in loudly celebrating the accession deal.

"Are Czechs unable to rejoice, or are they unable to evaluate what happened at the EU summit?", Viliam Buchert asks.

"They talk only about money while other countries have taken it entirely differently," he comments.

Moving west, newspapers in Germany find plenty to worry about post-Copenhagen.

The leftist Die Tageszeitung and the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung fret about topics close to their respective hearts - the environment and Turkey.

The taz laments the farm subsidies granted to Poland and others, which it fears will delay reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the summit's failure to give Austria legally-binding safety guarantees about the Czech Republic's controversial Temelin nuclear plant.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung does not mince its words in declaring that to include Turkey in any subsequent EU enlargement would be a mistake.

"Europe is a society of peoples who have forged common values over many centuries and have freely joined together under the perception of these values being under threat," it says.

"Turkey does not belong to this Europe."

Other German dailies consider the EU's next steps.

The Frankfurter Rundschau thinks the EU must now work to match its new size with political might.

"What remains is to find those who will seize this opportunity courageously - even at the cost of future membership rounds having to wait," it says.

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung sees an even more urgent need for an EU constitution.

Without a redefinition of Europe's internal workings, the paper says, "this mega-union will be its own downfall, with Brussels becoming ungovernable and the victim of the success of Copenhagen".

Ivory Coast entanglement

In France, Le Figaro voices concern as the government rushes Foreign Legion paratroopers into Ivory Coast with orders to shoot anybody breaching the cease-fire.

The paper warns that the move is a "dangerous gamble", because "loyalists think France has taken sides with them" while the rebels "doubt France's neutrality and say they are ready to take on the French troops".

Still in France, the left-of-centre Le Monde tries to take some comfort from last week's ruling by a panel of "wise men" that President Jacques Chirac cannot be investigated over alleged corruption allegations until after he leaves office.

The Avril Commission's findings have been seen as granting Mr Chirac continued legal protection, but Le Monde says the ruling provides for legal action once his term is over.

Mr Chirac "has a date with the judicial authorities" once he ceases to be president, it says, urging him to "make a clear commitment to have the Avril Commission's recommendations implemented".

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