Shooting the messenger

Date: 24/04/1997

The manager of Austria's campaign to promote economic and monetary union has resigned after being accused of acting as the mouthpiece of the European Commission.

Gustav Raab was ostensibly an independent expert, one of a large group appointed by the Commission to spread the word on EMU throughout the land. But only three weeks into the job, the pressure from Green MEPs became too much. They were enraged by the fact that all the experts had to sign agreements “not to express any views contrary to those of the Commission”.

The charge against Raab in particular was that he had breached his promise to provide the Austrian public with free and independent advice. According to Austrian Green MEP Johannes Voggenhuber, 80 of the 260 Commission appointees found the “scandalous” agreement impossible to sign because it restricted their scientific freedom.

Raab, however, was among those who did sign and it was that which forced his resignation. But he did not compromise his pledge of impartiality: the former head of the Association of Austrian Savings Banks was hounded out before he had a chance to make the first of the speeches he was supposed to deliver about the future of the euro.