European press review

Europe's heat wave and doubts over President Chirac's tax policies preoccupy French papers. Germany's press look at EU proposals to stop food producers making bogus health claims. In Russia, the papers consider the problems of stray missiles, while the Czech press gives its verdict on premier Vladimir Spidla's visit to Washington.

France's Le Figaro reports on the "devastation" in south-western France caused by violent storms which have accompanied the unusually hot weather.

"Not content with parching the ground and crops, contributing to pollution in cities as well as the asphyxiation of rivers and causing many fires to break out," the paper says, "high temperatures are also behind the violent thunderstorms which left six people dead."

Chirac's 'headache'

Other French papers wonder if President Jacques Chirac might not run into stormy political weather following tax breaks promised last year.

"How will Jacques Chirac be able to keep the many tax pledges which he made during the election campaign?", Le Monde asks.

It is therefore too early to get out the champagne, even at a reduced rate Liberation

It points out he will have to refrain from increasing taxes at a time when fiscal revenue is down as a result of poor growth.

The budget deficit must also be limited under European rules - "a real headache", the paper observes.

Liberation is sceptical about a proposed VAT reduction in the catering sector as a move to create more jobs saying employers will be the main beneficiaries.

"It is true that many of them work more than most people," it says, "but overall this is not a particularly disadvantaged social group whose situation calls for urgent aid."

The paper concludes the money used to finance the tax cut would be better spent elsewhere. "It is therefore too early to get out the champagne, even at a reduced rate," it says.

EU advertising ban

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung writes about a proposal from Brussels to ban meaningless health claims by food producers - yoghurt that strengthens the body's immune system, for example.

"It sounds like a satire on Brussels bureaucracy but is meant in deadly earnest," the paper says, adding that EU Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne is leading a campaign "to rescue consumers."

Anyone who is old enough to go shopping should know what it going on die tageszeitung

While Berlin's die tageszeitung applauds the EU initiative, it condemns what it calls the "pathetic" state of consumer culture.

"Anyone who is old enough to go shopping should know what it going on," it says.

It dismisses claims from the food industry as "ridiculous" and a "joke".

What is needed, the paper suggests, is a strategy which helps people eat better with little money and time.

"A stricter labelling of foods in the EU is therefore a good first step. But consumer protection officials should also see it as their task to protect consumers from themselves."

Missing missiles

Russia's papers consider problems the country's military is having with its missiles after an official investigation is launched into how a Russian fighter jet misfired a training missile, wiping out a house near St Petersburg.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta says Russia's ordnance is "much more dangerous to Russians themselves" than the enemy.

"But what about our antediluvian 'dumb' shells, which our arms dumps are overflowing with," it asks, "which are also in the habit of independently taking flight and landing on the heads of local civilians?"

And the popular daily Moskovskiy Komsomolets wonders if the investigators can determine "how the peaceful dacha managed to offend our Air Force", adding that the incident must have been "a bolt from the blue" for the owner of the house.

Czech PM's US trip

The Czech press view Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla's visit to Washington as a great success.

A commentator writing in Pravo says the US administration put the visit "on the highest possible level, maybe even a little bit beyond the framework of original expectations."

The papers see the extension of the planned 30-minute meeting between Mr Spidla and Mr Bush by almost half an hour as politically significant.

Another commentator in the daily Lidove Noviny says Spidla's warm reception sent "a clear signal" to Czech President Vaclav Klaus.

Pointing to former president Vaclav Havel who was "considered a representative of the Czech Republic", he writes, "now it can be easily the premier."

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