Bid for systematic checks on Austria defeated

Date: 14/09/00

By Simon Taylor

AUSTRIA'S far-right Freedom Party will not face systematic monitoring by EU governments despite Belgian demands for continuing checks on Vienna's performance.

Union leaders unanimously agreed this week to lift sanctions imposed in protest at the party's entry into government earlier this year.

Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel, one of the strongest advocates of sanctions, called for continued monitoring of the situation in return for agreeing to end the diplomatic freeze. But this was rejected by other European leaders after Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel made it clear that he would go ahead with his threat to hold a referendum on his country's relations with the Union if they insisted on monitoring.EU governments were afraid that the inevitable negative vote would jeopardise efforts to agree treaty reforms by the end of this year, because the Austrian government would not be able to make concessions in negotiations with other Union countries. "The referendum threat has definitely had an impact on the decision," said one diplomat.

Instead of formal moni-toring, EU leaders promised to exercise "vigilance" in Austria. While the Belgians held out for changes to the text to meet their concerns, Danish Prime Minister Paul Nyrup Rasmussen argued strongly for an early lifting of the sanctions without conditions.

He was afraid that failing to take decisive action after the wise men had given the Austrian government a clean bill of health would encourage Danes to vote against joining the single currency in their 28 September referendum.

French President Jacques Chirac, speaking on behalf of all 14 EU leaders, said the penalties had been "useful" in encouraging the Austrian government to recognise its "commitment to common European values". But he warned that the Freedom Party had "extremist characteristics" and its "uncertain development" remained a reason for "serious concern".

The EU-14's decision followed warnings from the three wise men appointed to examine the record of the Austrian government and Freedom Party that maintaining the sanctions would be "counter-productive" because they had stirred up "nationalist sentiment" in the country.

In their report, the trio recommended that the Union should create a mechanism to monitor and assess whether member states were upholding European standards on democracy and human rights. They said this should be incorporated into the section of the EU's treaty which sets out procedures for dealing with countries that fail to live up to Union norms.

Treaty negotiators discussed three options for revising the rules this week, but failed to make any progress.