The European Union in all its complex and quirky permutations is on the minds of many commentators in Germany Tuesday. They have good reason. Three hot button issues are hitting their climax: the change at the helm of the EU Commission, a vote on the fate of controversial Commission nominee Rocco Buttiglione and French-German-Turkey talks on Turkish EU admission.

The Financial Times Deutschland opts to comment on the end of Italian Romano Prodi's stint as head of the Commission. It is universally accepted that Prodi was an ineffectual leader and in his farewell address Monday, he lamented that his main legacy was the failure of his ambitious plan (the Lisbon Agenda) to make the EU more competitive. As such, the FTD bids him a tearless goodbye. It calls him an "intellectually undisciplined" leader whose successes -- introduction of the euro, EU enlargement, agricultural reform, defense of the Growth and Stability Pact -- can all be chocked up to the abilities of his commissioners. "Strong leadership -- that is what was missing in the Commission under both Jacques Santer (Prodi's predecessor who was forced to resign amid scandals) and Romano Prodi," the FTD writes. The paper does, however, concede that the complicated politicking required of a Commission president makes it "among the hardest jobs in politics" and that it is "unfair" to put all the blame on Prodi. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the business daily Handelsblatt highlight some of those difficulties by focusing on the brouhaha clouding former Portuguese prime minister Jose Manuel Barroso's ascension to the Commission's throne. At issue is Barroso's choice of Rocco Buttiglione, who believes homosexuality is a sin and that single mothers cannot be good parents, as EU Commissioner of Justice and Human Rights. EU parliamentarians, who have responded skeptically to the pick, are set to vote on it Wednesday. FAZ criticizes Barroso for sticking resolutely to Buttiglione despite parliament's reservations. "The tone got sharper as Barroso seemed not to take the parliamentarians' critiques of Buttiglione seriously and continued to insist that he was the right man in the right place. Out of a Buttiglione episode, there emerged a Barroso episode," the paper writes.

For Handelsblatt the vote on Buttiglione is not so important because, the paper is fairly certain, he will be rejected. Rather, it focuses on issues the debate gives rise to. In addition to highlighting the power struggle between the Commission and Parliament, Buttiglione's social conservatism highlights a "cultural battle" within the EU, the paper writes. Namely, should politicians' personal beliefs and religion be separated from their politics? Can they be? The normal "reflex answer" is "yes," Handelsblatt says. And Buttiglione has written a letter saying he will toe the more tolerant European line. But, Buttiglione is not the only one who needs to be asking himself these questions, says the paper. All religious conservatives should be doing the same thing. "The conservatives have to fight with themselves," the paper writes. "They no longer know if they are arguing politically as Christians or if their religion should be kept out of their arguments."

Religious issues are also important in the debate over whether to admit Turkey into the EU. Handelsblatt notes that the EU defines itself as a "Christian-oriented organization" and is, therefore, hesitant about admitting a Muslim member. As such, Turkey, may be the catalyst that "will in either the short or long run force this long-neglected discussion about religion to the fore," the paper says. The conservative Die Welt has a different take, offering a critical attack on Buttiglione by EU Parliament member Cem Oezdemir. Oezdemir, a German of Turkish descent who is a prominent Green Party member, provides a list of incidents and statements that prove "Buttiglione has not withstood the Parliamentary test." They include an attempt to have rules preventing sexual discrimination revoked, a comment that a woman's most important role is to be a mother and statements he says are clearly anti-immigrant.