EU Presidency: European papers' view: It has been Ireland's misfortune - or, just possibly, good fortune and opportunity - to inherit the EU presidency in what the Chinese would call "interesting times".
All European commentators agree on the formidable difficulties facing the Taoiseach and the Irish team, but perhaps their nature and extent are most clearly set out by Isabel Arriaga e Cunha in Lisbon's Público.
While Mr Ahern, writes Arriaga, initially set out to damp down expectations of much progress during the Irish presidency, he soon realised that "a failure to push forward negotiations vigorously over the next few months, correcting the mistakes of his predecessor, Silvio Berlusconi, risks leading to the final burial of the constitution elaborated by Giscard d'Estaing's European convention".
The split between France and Germany on the one hand and Spain and Poland on the other over voting weights in the European Council, and the danger of the emergence of a "two-speed" Europe if it is not resolved, is probably the main problem facing the Irish presidency, writes Arriaga. But it is not the only one. There is also the violation by France and Germany of the terms of the Stability and Growth pact and the fixing of the EU budget for the period 2007 to 2113. And this at a time when the European Parliament is set to be dissolved pending new elections, while the Commission, nearing the end of its mandate, will be dominated by speculation as to who will succeed Romano Prodi.
"Whether the Irish will be able to resolve the mountain of problems they face is an unknown," says Público. "If they succeed, they will have a guaranteed place in the gallery of European super-heroes. If they fail no one will be able to criticise them; but who would like to be in Mr Ahern's shoes?"
If it turns out in the end that Ireland's presidency is not judged a great success we will certainly not be able to protest that we had a hard act to follow.
For Belgium's Le Soir, the Italian presidency was frankly a disaster and Mr Berlusconi an anti-European "passing off as clumsiness what is in fact a deliberate design".
For Laurent Zecchini in France's Le Monde the Italian approach to European business was "flashy but ineffectual".
Le Monde seems to attribute to the Taoiseach a certain artfulness in his approach to the challenges ahead of him. [Mr Ahern\]... "has been careful to damp down hopes of an accord on the European constitution so that the slightest advance in this area will appear as a success for Dublin".
While stressing that there is little to indicate that any of the disputing parties - France, Germany, Spain, Poland - are ready to move from their position at this stage, Zecchini nevertheless observes that "certain diplomats, however, judge that Ireland is better placed than Italy to make the European interest prevail over national egoisms".
What is generally referred to as a two-speed or even multi-speed Europe, former Commission president Jacques Delors, writing in Le Figaro of Paris, prefers to call "differentiation", a phenomenon, he says, which has always been with us and which has allowed Europe to advance in the past.
Delors argues that the current stalemate over voting weights is a false and sterile one, caused "on one side by the intransigence of the new candidates, who say they want no avant garde or find the idea of a two-speed Europe scandalous, and are supported in this by Great Britain; and on the other by implicit threats, notably by Germany and France, who respond: 'Careful, if you keep this up we're going to create an avant garde!' To transform in this way what is a fundamental problem vital for the future of Europe into an ephemeral tactical quarrel is to degrade and even condemn the ideas which have allowed Europe to advance," writes Delors.
On many occasions in the past, he recalls, Europe was shaken out of crisis or stalemate by an external force. What act of history or what drama, he asks, will happen to Europe now to force it to unite to act effectively, "to emerge from this morose atmosphere, from these little short-term games which so entrance our diplomats"?
Much of the pessimism about Ireland's chances of overcoming the stalemate on voting weights comes from an appreciation of the difficult domestic political circumstances in Spain and Poland.
On his return from Brussels in December last the Polish prime minister, Mr Miller, was greeted as a hero. But now, with worries about how much sustenance the Polish economy will be able to derive from structural funds in a more pinched budgetary climate after 2007, some commentators are questioning the wisdom of being seen as too obdurate.
Writing in Warsaw's Gazeta Wyborcza, former minister Antoni Podolski argues: "Our politicians defend the arithmetic of Nice, but haven't a word to say about the constructive projects for Europe we want to promote given our weight in the European Council." Poland, he contends, "has showed only that it wants to employ a power of nuisance to block certain decisions ... Our irrational position is an example of symbolic politics; it is anti-French and anti-German, our two principal allies in Europe."
Elsewhere, European editorialists are concerned with the latest manifestation of terrorism on the continent, aimed this time at prominent EU figures. "From an ideological point of view, Europe, its institutions and representatives make an obvious target for both extremes of the political spectrum," writes Jörg Wohan in Vienna's der Standard.
"One side sees it as the embodiment of an anti-human globalisation, the other as a great danger to the beloved Fatherland. Unfortunately, it is not unheard of for even moderate politicians to exploit these emotions."
Moderate or not, the Eurosceptic UK Independence Party's contention that the letter-bomb campaign was "the price of forcing a political idea on people" was roundly condemned by other politicians, the London Independent reported. In a somewhat familiar refrain, the UKIP's Mr Nigel Farage said he deplored the attacks but "could understand the reasons behind them".