The German media was only moderately excited by the European Commission's reprimand of the Republic's economic policies on Wednesday. "Ireland receives a warning letter" was the stern headline in the influential Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, moderated by the sub-heading stating that "other Euro members also get poor grades". The newspaper reported that the Republic's Budget had "for the first time forced the European Commission to deliver strong recommendations to adhere to the agreed guidelines". The Republic's economic planning for the year was "procyclical and therefore goes against the guidelines agreed by euro members", the newspaper quoted Economic Affairs Commissioner Mr Pedro Solbes as saying.

The Berliner Zeitung also drew attention to the nature of the reprimand, saying that the euro zone had "never seen such harsh criticism of economic policy".

The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, along with other newspapers, carried a German news agency report saying that the commission was "concerned and annoyed by Ireland's high inflation, which threatens the stability of the euro zone".

"EU gives Irish Economic Politics the Thumbs Down" was the headline in the Frankfurter Rundschau, over a report that repeated the commission's warning against "generous budgetary politics" in the Republic.

The newspaper paraphrased Mr Solbes, commenting that "the green island is in danger of an overheated economy" and called on the Government to change its "expansive" tax and expenditure policies.

With inflation on a harmonised basis of 5.6 per cent, the newspaper said that the State was "bringing up the rear" in the euro zone.