European press review

news.bbc.co.uk Thursday, 23 January, 2003, 05:30 GMT

Today's editions cover the Paris celebrations to mark the anniversary of the treaty between France and Germany. Some papers also note the summit in Davos of World Economic Forum and its counterpart in the Brazilian town of Porto Alegre. The Russian press picks up on the theme of theft, large and small.

Symbolism out, pragmatism in

France's leading daily Le Monde finds the French-German celebrations so providential that, as the paper puts it, "if the 40th anniversary of the Elysee Treaty had not existed, it would have had to be invented".

With "major challenges" ahead like the EU's "unprecedented enlargement" and the drawing up of a European constitution, the paper says, "it was about time the languishing (French-German) cooperation was revived".

But with the war more than half-a-century away, it adds, "this is no longer a time for symbolism like that of De Gaulle and Adenauer praying together at Reims cathedral, or Mitterrand and Kohl holding hands on the battlefield in Verdun".

As the paper sees it, "neither the time nor the incumbents lend themselves" to such an approach.

And in fact, it notes, the joint declaration signed in Paris on Wednesday, is so pragmatic in tone that it reads more "like the conclusions of a company board meeting".

A matter of taste

In Romania, Bucharest's Adevarul welcomes the Franco-German joint declaration in which, it writes, "the two countries mention Romania as a future member of the EU".

"The Wednesday celebration of the 40th anniversary of French-German post-war reconciliation," the paper continues, "demonstrates what a partnership at the heart of Europe was able to create in our modern time". The white wine was German and the red was French

Adevarul

"But the present French-German partnership did not consist uniquely of bilateral relations and European construction", the paper adds, and points out that "the two countries are acting jointly in the service of international security and various international bodies".

"And to show to all European countries the extend of their friendship," the paper concludes, "France and Germany extended their partnership during the celebrations to the wine list as well: the white wine was German and the red was French."

Davos & Porto Alegre

Global issues will be addressed today from standpoints as far apart as the distance between the Swiss Alpine village of Davos, where the movers and shakers of the World Economic Forum will gather today, and the Brazilian town of Porto Alegre, the regular venue of the World Social Forum.

Major West European political leaders seem to have disappeared from the forum this year

International Herald Tribune

"They have as much in common," says the French daily Liberation, "as a Swiss company's board meeting and a tropical carnival."

"On one side," the paper adds, "there will be the happy few, and on the other the legion of the discontented."

Their topic is "more or less the same", it notes, "but the languages are so different that any kind of communication would appear impossible". And yet, the paper marvels, President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, "one of the few speakers to have triumphed in Porto Alegre", has taken up the challenge and will address the Davos meeting.

But then, as the paper puts it, Lula is "living proof that a culture nurtured in the laboratories of Utopia is capable of facing the cruel reality of the post-industrial world".

The Paris-based International Herald Tribune says that many of the Davos forum's customary stars have been "humbled", as the paper puts it, "by accounting scandals, mismanaged mergers, personal greed or the economic downturn".

But still, it notes, "about 1,000 corporate figures have paid up to $30,000 dollars to attend the gathering, along with 1,000 other representatives from the media" and other groups, as well as "political luminaries" such as US Secretary of State Colin Powell and King Abdullah II of Jordan.

However, the paper points out, "major West European political leaders", including Britain's Tony Blair and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder, "seem to have disappeared from the forum this year".

Got a new motor?

"Many foreigners are surprised on first arriving in Moscow at the superabundance of luxury cars in our capital," writes the Russian newspaper Trud.

"They don't see this number of BMWs, Lexuses and Mercedes in Berlin, Paris or Los Angeles.

"They ought to be pleased at how wealthy Russians are becoming, but there is a big 'but': practically all the elite foreign cars belonging to Russians have either been stolen overseas or illegally brought through customs."

The numbers are staggering, Trud explains.

"In the 1990s, Interpol was looking in Russia for 2.4 million cars stolen in the West. From 2000 this number halved - the explanation is simple, they stop looking for cars over three years old... but they still call us the country of stolen cars."

Komsomolskaya Pravda reports that a press conference in Moscow by representatives of Western insurance companies noted that not more than 100 of the vehicles illegally exported to Russia have been returned to their true owners.

The police representative invited to the press conference did not show up. "Evidently we will remain a black hole in the eyes of the civilised world for some time to come," Komsomolskaya Pravda notes.

If it's not nailed down...

Local paper Vecherniy Chelyabinsk says allotments Belaya Balka near Chelyabinsk in the Urals "should go into the Guinness Book of Records for the number of thefts over the winter".

The dog was stolen together with its kennel and chain

Vecherniy Chelyabinsk

On average across Russia one in three allotment buildings is burgled over the winter: the average for Belaya Balka is for every one to be burgled twice a season.

The gardeners got together and took decisive action.

"They brought in a specially-trained guard dog from Chelyabinsk, which was capable of tearing any intruder to tiny pieces.

"On its first night on duty, the dog was stolen together with its kennel and chain."

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