European press review

The papers are dominated by the Thessaloniki summit in Greece, where the enlarged EU pointed the way to a European constitution but failed to agree a common immigration policy.

The summit of enlargement

Papers in Eastern Europe make few efforts to conceal their joy over the outcome of Thessaloniki.

"The summit of European unity" is how the Romanian daily Cotidianul hails the event in its headline.

The final declaration, the paper says, "explicitly supports Romania's ambition to close the EU entry negotiations by the end of 2004 and to become an EU member by 2007".

"Although the European Council's summit was unable to clarify the existing differences among member states on the future of the EU constitution," the paper continues, "the Romanian government is already celebrating the summit's decision to consider future EU enlargements as an irreversible process and to treat Romania's accession on the same principles used in the last wave of EU accession."

"But in order to fulfil its ambition to become a full EU member by 2007, Romania has to do its homework," the paper warns.

Hungary astonishingly brave to raise national minorities issue

Nepsabadsag

"If by the end of this year the European Commission does not see fully-fledged economic, administrative and justice reform in Romania, the present government will remain responsible for yet another lost opportunity in the country's quest for European integration," it concludes.

Another Romanian daily, Adevarul, says the Romanian delegation left Thessaloniki "with a large smile on their lips".

"For the first time, the EU has given concrete hope to, and shown political will towards the remaining countries in their long road towards full European integration," the paper says.

"Moreover," the paper says, "the EU decision to support the western Balkan states in their efforts for European integration represents an historic moment which our government has to encourage".

"Romania," the daily concludes, "has to impart to the Western Balkan states the experience acquired during the current EU pre-accession period because this kind of cooperation is the best framework for the consolidation of a regional political platform for European integration."

Central Europe

The Hungarian daily Nepszabadsag says the enlarged European Council proved viable and the new members even brought up new issues.

The paper praises the Hungarian position for what it calls its "factual and logical" arguments and its "astonishingly brave" initial steps to raise the issue of minorities in a new way.

Hungary's leaders suggested the EU constitution should protect not only the individual but also the rights of national minorities, the paper explains.

It describes as "surprising and also encouraging" the French and Greek leaders' immediate support for the proposal, which the Convention on the Future of Europe had rejected.

"Double baptism at the summit", reads a headline in the Czech daily Pravo, which says that both the draft EU constitution and the Czech delegation passed the test at the Thessaloniki summit.

It praises the Czech delegation for successfully pushing for equal participation of the accession states in the forthcoming debate on the constitution.

It also notes that Czech Prime Minister Spidla's wording was given preference over that of French President Chirac in the debate on EU measures against the Palestinian movement Hamas.

"The Czech delegation has so far shown at the summit that it knows how to make itself heard," the daily concludes.

"Starting with a good score" is how another Czech daily, Hospodarske Noviny, assesses the Czech Republic's participation in its first EU summit after the success of the referendum on membership.

It says that the high turnout and the overwhelming yes vote strengthened the Czech delegation's position at the summit.

The daily says there is no doubt that the Czech Republic succeeded as a new member, but adds that much depends on the support it can gain from other EU members.

"The Czechs are now creating a decent position for themselves at the EU's debating table," the daily observes.

When EU leaders took a boat cruise off Thessaloniki on Saturday it was, says the Paris daily Le Monde, "with a feeling of having accomplished their duty".

They accepted the draft constitution, defined a European security doctrine and launched a future enlargement to the Balkans countries, it explains.

"The European Union indeed remains a pole of attraction for its neighbours," the paper goes on, citing not only prospective member states but also refugees and economic migrants.

"Europe... must welcome immigrants, not out of charity but because it needs them to make up for its demographic deficiencies," it argues.

But despite earlier efforts to coordinate visa and asylum policy, the paper laments that in Thessaloniki the Fifteen missed another chance to create a really common immigration policy.

Towards a constitution

The enlarged EU agreed in Thessaloniki to create a definitive European constitution on the basis of Valery Giscard d'Estaing's draft, notes the Madrid daily El Pais.

"That 28 countries with such disparate languages and juridical cultures should have produced this result is an historic event in itself," the paper says.

But it criticises the text's wordiness, lack of a guiding principle and excessive concern with the past and laments what it calls the "absurd battle" over the mention of Europe's Christian heritage.

"More than 50 years after the start of European integration... we must convey inwards and outwards our values of freedom and democracy, peace and social justice," the paper argues.

"And achieve a presence in the world not as a counterweight to the United States but in order collectively to regain political and democratic control over our own environment, which has been lost at the hands of merciless globalisation."

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