EU diplomats claim stance on Austria is bearing fruit

Date: 06/04/2000

By Simon Taylor

EU DIPLOMATS have dismissed speculation that their governments may be on the verge of easing diplomatic sanctions against Austria, despite growing criticism of the policy from Scandinavian politicians.

They insist that their tough approach is bearing fruit, pointing to recent opinion polls which suggest voters in Austria are turning away from the far-right Freedom Party, and say that no Union government would take the lead in calling for a change to the EU's stance just as it is producing results.

In one survey, only 17% of respondents said they would vote for the Freedom Party, compared to the 27% who voted for Jörg Haider and his cohorts in last autumn's election. However, centre-right Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's popularity among voters has increased, even though he was the target of international criticism for bringing the Freedom Party into the government.

Diplomats say the drop in support for Haider's followers vindicates the decision taken by the EU's 14 other member states at the end of January to freeze bilateral ties with Vienna, and has strengthened their resolve to stand firm despite mounting pressure from Austria for an end to its isolation.

"There is no way that the sanctions are going to be dropped during the Portuguese presidency, nor under the French or the Swedes or the Belgians for that matter," said one, referring to the next three countries which will take charge of EU business once Lisbon's six-month stint in charge ends in June.

Diplomats also dismissed reports that the Danish government was about to break ranks and call for an end to sanctions, even though senior figures in Copenhagen's ruling left-liberal coalition have called for a rethink.

Elisabeth Arnold, EU spokeswoman for Denmark's small centrist Radical Party, said this week that "EU nations should intervene at the first opportunity to end the sanctions." But a foreign ministry official in Copenhagen insisted that there was "no change in the government's position" and pointed out that Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen's support for the sanctions had been fully endorsed by the national parliament.

Some observers suggested that Danish politicians have begun criticising the Union's stance in public in an attempt to mollify voters whose support for the government's moves to join the euro zone is weakening because they believe the EU is interfering in domestic political affairs.

Others argued that there was little chance of the freeze being lifted despite internal political dissent in some member states because the decision was up to heads of state and government.

They pointed out that the new Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja had been reined in by Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen after calling for a rethink of the sanctions policy at last month's Lisbon summit.