Bid to maintain unity over Austrian sanctions

Date: 07/09/00

By Simon Taylor

FRANCE will urge EU leaders to maintain a united stance on the sanctions against Austria even if the wise men's report does not give a clear signal on whether the country's diplomatic isolation should be ended.

"It would be good if we can come to a common position. The 14 took a decision together. We should continue together," French Foreign Minister Pierre Moscovici told the European Parliament this week. His comments were designed to head off speculation that each member state would be able to decide individually whether to lift the sanctions against Vienna or keep them in place.

The report drawn up by three independent experts on human rights, which is due to be published within the next week, is widely expected to give the coalition government a clean bill of health for its record in protecting the rights of immigrants and other foreigners since it came to power. But it is likely to criticise some elements within the far-right Freedom Party for their use of xenophobic rhetoric. The chances of a critical report rose this week after the Council of Europe's Committee against Racism and Intolerance said the Freedom Party had "repeatedly explicitly resorted to xenophobic and intolerant propaganda".

If the wise men's report stops short of a blanket condemnation of the party's role in government, Union leaders may split over whether the sanctions should be lifted. The French and Belgian governments have been the strongest advocates of the diplomatic freeze on Austria amid fears of electoral gains by their countries' own far-right parties, but Denmark and Finland have called for an end to Vienna's isolation.

If the report is inconclusive, some governments are said to be in favour of suspending the penalties at this stage and lifting them fully at a later date. But merely putting the sanctions on hold is unlikely to end the tension between Vienna and the rest of the EU.

Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel has warned that he will press ahead with plans to hold a referendum on his country's relations with the Union unless the penalties are abolished in full. "Our common aim is a lifting of the sanctions, nothing else," he said this week.

Austria's EU partners have urged Vienna not to go ahead with the vote, warning that it could harden attitudes against the Union and reduce the country's ability to show flexibility in negotiations on imortant EU decisions such as the impending treaty reforms.

Austrian President Thomas Klestil stressed this week that he thought holding a referendum was a bad idea. "Pressure always leads to pressure from the other side, which is not a good thing," he said.

France will urge EU leaders to maintain a united stance on the sanctions against Austria even if the forthcoming wise men's report does not give a clear signal on whether the country's diplomatic isolation should be ended.