In France, the debate over a new bill on employment reform continues, while papers in Germany call into question the credibility of the former chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, following revelations about a financial decision his administration took before he left office and his business activities since then.
And the late Pope John Paul II's legacy comes under scrutiny a year after his death.
French troubles
Three days after French President Jacques Chirac called for changes to a controversial labour reform bill, which came into effect on Sunday, Liberation says the "political crisis" over the First Employment Contract, or CPE, is far from over.
The paper points out that it is unprecedented for a president to call for parts of a law to be "consigned to the dustbin" even as it is promulgated.
"The president failed to settle the issue; he contented himself with equivocating"
"This will not inspire greater respect for the law among the French, if the person whose role is, above all, to see to it that the law is applied is the first to scorn it."
The paper finds it difficult to see how the current standoff can be resolved while students and the trade unions continue to demand the repeal of the CPE.
"The imbroglio remains undiminished" it says, and "if this continues, the political crisis will begin to look like a crisis of the political system".
Le Monde is also critical of the president.
Mr Chirac's intervention was not decisive because he did not want to disown his prime minister, the paper believes.
"The result: the president failed to settle the issue; he contented himself with equivocating."
Looking to the future, Le Figaro says that Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy - a political rival of Mr Chirac within the governing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party - is set to play a leading role in efforts to resolve the dispute.
Under the front-page headline "Sarkozy takes CPE issue in hand", the paper reports that Mr Sarkozy, the current leader of the UMP, aims to reach a negotiated solution as soon as possible.
And the trades unions appear to be ready to accept the UMP's offer of talks on a new CPE bill, it adds.
Whiff of scandal
Germany's former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is under fire after it emerged that his government approved a loan guarantee for the Russian gas giant Gazprom, a company he went to work for shortly after leaving office.
Mr Schroeder has denied any knowledge of the guarantee while he was chancellor, but a parliamentary review now appears likely.
Berliner Zeitung believes Mr Schroeder should leave his Gazprom job immediately.
"Those who have been elected and want to become elder statesmen have to earn their reputations"
"Even if Schroeder did not know about the guarantee as chancellor," it says, "he must take overall responsibility for the actions of his government."
As long as he stays in the job, "the question will remain on whether he may have used his office as chancellor to his own advantage".
Der Tagesspiegel agrees, saying it was wrong of Mr Schroeder to make a "quick rouble" as soon as he left office.
"There is no written code of conduct for departing statesmen, a sort of etiquette manual for chancellors, but there are unwritten laws," it argues.
To remain statesmanlike after holding political office requires an extra quality, the paper believes.
"Those who have been elected and then want to become elder statesmen have to earn their reputations."
Austria's Die Presse is even harsher in its assessment, saying it "wholeheartedly agrees" with Guido Westerwelle, the leader of Germany's opposition Free Democrats, who said the affair "stinks to high heaven".
The image of Russia in Germany "tends to alternate between a Balalaika-playing Volga fisherman and an eastern 'Untermensch' with threatening Asiatic features", the paper says before adding that "Gerhard Schroeder lost any sense long ago of how you can be both a Russophile and a decent person".
"Eminent failure"
During the commemoration in the Vatican City on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death, the new Pope seemed particularly moved, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung observes.
"Pale, almost exhausted-looking, Benedict XVI stood before the crowd of believers as though the death of his predecessor a year ago had really affected him."
It was notable that Pope Benedict referred to John Paul II's "political role, his uncompromising peace policy and his struggle against exploitation", it says.
"We can hardly imagine the fall of the pro-Moscow regimes without the role played by Poland or Poland without its Pope""The charismatic Pole set standards."
But just one year after his death many find it hard to understand the popularity of this deeply conservative Pope, the paper says.
"Much remained undone during the last few years," the paper quotes observers as saying, especially on celibacy laws and communion for divorcees who remarry.
"Benedict has to act in this sphere, once the commemorations for his predecessor are over."
The Czech daily Mlada Fronta Dnes says Pope John Paul II left behind a mixed legacy.
He carried through major changes to the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic church, appointing those he trusted as new bishops, "although they frequently excelled in their loyalty rather than in their abilities".
His main contribution, it believes, was in the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
"Although it would have collapsed without him, we can hardly imagine the fall of the pro-Moscow regimes without the role played by Poland or Poland without its Pope."
Even so, the end of communism did not launch a more spiritual era for Europe, the paper says.
The daily praises the late Pope for his openness towards other churches and for apologising on behalf of the Roman Catholics for wrongs committed through the centuries.
John Paul II had "an unmistakable style - but the content was the same as his predecessors and his successor".
"He was an eminent personality", it concludes, "but he failed in many aspects".
The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.
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