European press review

The opening by the EU of formal accession talks with Turkey, despite a last-ditch objection from Cyprus, is a major story in Tuesday's European dailies.

Many papers see the suggestion by a US official that three suicides by prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were a "good PR move" as highlighting the gulf between Washington and the rest of the democratic world on human rights.

Turkey-EU talks

After European Union foreign ministers cleared the way for the start of detailed negotiations with Turkey on EU membership, Belgium's La Libre Belgique says that the "difficulties" in the negotiations testify to the "ultra-sensitive nature" of accession talks with Turkey.

The negotiations are scheduled to last 10 years "at least", the paper notes.

With the talks almost "deadlocked" over Turkey's failure to normalise relations with Cyprus, a deal was reached only after the EU gave the Cypriots additional guarantees over Turkey's obligations.

It was "by sending a warning to Ankara... over meeting all its obligations that the 25 managed to overcome the opposition of Cyprus to the start of the concrete phase in membership talks with Turkey", it explains.

Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is not pleased with how the EU conducted itself.

When big states threaten small ones, there is no place for them in the EU Der Tagesspiegel

The decision by the European Union to start detailed talks with Turkey was overshadowed by a lack of solidarity with Cyprus, it complains.

The paper finds it "curious, not to say absurd" that Turkey wants to become an EU member but is not prepared to recognise Cyprus.

"Self-respect and solidarity with member state Cyprus would demand that the EU should insist on recognition," it argues.

The stepping up of European pressure on Cyprus after Turkey threatened to boycott yesterday's meeting of foreign ministers in Luxembourg was "not a glorious episode", it says.

Der Tagesspiegel, also in Germany, is sceptical about Turkey.

Northern Cyprus is creating facts while southern Cyprus is engaged in obstruction and is isolating itself within the EU Berliner Zeitung

Turkey's stance on Cyprus disqualifies it from EU membership, the paper believes.

"Cyprus is very small; Turkey is very big," it notes.

"When big states threaten small ones, then there is no place for them in the EU."

The Cyprus factor

However, the Berliner Zeitung believes the Greek Cypriots are to blame for the problems that have dogged the start of accession talks with Turkey.

The paper recalls that two years ago the southern Greek Cypriot part of the island rejected a UN-backed plan for reunification with the Turkish Cypriot north, which is experiencing an "incredible upsurge in energy and development".

"Northern Cyprus is creating facts while southern Cyprus is engaged in obstruction and is isolating itself within the EU," is how the paper views the two sides.

In Austria, Die Presse suspects some EU governments are exploiting the dispute over Cyprus in order to get Turkey to abandon its bid to join the European Union.

"As a result, a peace settlement for Cyprus - for which closer ties between Turkey and the EU were supposed to act as a lever - is moving ever further away."

Outrage over Guantanamo

The suggestion by a senior US administration official that three suicides by prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay were a "good PR move" - and "an act of asymmetric warfare against us", according to the camp commander - has provoked outrage across Europe.

For France's Le Monde, such pronouncements "illustrate the gulf which separates the American authorities from the rest of the world on this sinister question".

The least that European leaders should do henceforth is not to attend high-level meetings with Americans without first demanding Guantanamo's closure Le Monde

While recalling "the indispensable fight against world terrorism", the paper asks "how can the United States be made to see reason on the black stain that Guantanamo has become in the democratic world?"

The paper warns that the camp commander "forgets how American blindness to the treatment of the detainees exposes all Western democracies to propaganda and to Islamist radicals".

If the US continues to remain deaf to arguments that Guantanamo contravenes international law and human rights, "the least that European leaders should do henceforth is not to attend high-level meetings with Americans without first demanding Guantanamo's closure", the paper says.

For Spain's El Pais, the suggestion that the three Guantanamo suicides were a publicity stunt or an act of terrorism is "inhuman nonsense".

Guantanamo is an affront to human rights El Periodico

The US claims add "an even more shameful dimension to these deaths", it says.

The only acceptable response, it argues, is for the closure of Camp X-Ray at Guantanamo and "a fair trial for the 460 prisoners who are still held there, without charge and without trial".

Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, the secret CIA flights and the Haditha massacre only serve to "fuel hatred among many Muslims and swell the ranks of al-Qaeda".

El Periodico, in Barcelona, agrees, saying the deaths have reopened the debate over the legality of holding prisoners at the camp.

"Close Guantanamo," the headline of the main editorial demands.

The camp, it says, "violates all international conventions and is a permanent affront to human rights", pointing out that only 10 of the 460 inmates have ever been charged.

Serbian silence

At their meeting in Luxembourg on Monday, EU foreign ministers also decided to formally recognise Montenegro as a sovereign independent country, in line with the country's recent independence referendum.

"It is embarrassing!" Serbia's Blic says about the country's attitude towards Montenegro's independence.

"The world has recognised it, while Serbia remains silent," the headline reads.

Serbia, it rues, "will probably be among the last countries or even the very last one" to recognise Montenegro's independence.

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