Vienna’s campaign for end to sanctions risks backfiring

Date: 11/05/2000

By Simon Taylor

EU GOVERNMENTS are warning that Austria's aggressive campaign to get fellow Union member states to end their diplomatic sanctions against Vienna could be counter-productive - prolonging the country's political ostracism instead of ending it.

Diplomats say that although a significant number of EU governments have now signalled that they are prepared to discuss ways of ending the stand-off, any attempt to make progress could be jeopardised if member states felt they were being pressured into changing their stance.

A Belgian proposal to introduce a 'yellow card' style scheme to warn countries against possible human rights violations appears to offer a way out of the impasse. But officials warn that the 17-point plan for getting the sanctions lifted adopted by Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel's administration late last week could in fact worsen relations between the two sides.

The Austrian plan includes international opinion polls on the country, a diplomatic offensive to explain the political situation, media events, an examination of legal options open to Austria and an international conference of lawyers to assess the legality of the EU-14's freeze on bilateral ties.

Schüssel has also warned that he will call a referendum on attitudes towards the Union and its treatment of his country if fellow EU leaders do not come forward with proposals to lift the sanctions before the end of June.

But diplomats say the less provocative attitude of Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner, who has distanced herself from the referendum call, is more likely to produce positive results.

They point out that fellow foreign ministers agreed to pose with her for a 'family photograph' at their informal meeting last weekend. More significantly, seven member states said at the meeting that the Union should be prepared to discuss the sanctions question, despite opposition from Germany, France, Belgium and Portugal.

This represented a significant breakthrough for Austria, as EU politicians have previously refused to consider any changes to their stance in a group forum.

However, diplomats stress that they are still a long way off from actually ending the freeze. "This means a possible beginning to talks. It does not mean at all that sanctions are ready to be lifted because we do not accept that the leopard has changed its spots," said one, referring to the consensus that the Freedom Party is still xenophobic.

Diplomats add that there will be little progress on easing the sanctions unless French President Jacques Chirac softens his opposition to any change.

Chirac has been incensed by Jörg Haider's personal attacks on him - the former Freedom Party leader has called the president a "pocket-sized Napoleon" and a "political failure who doesn't know what he is talking about" - and is anxious to boost his anti-racist credentials and ostracise the French far-right ahead of next year's presidential and local elections.

However, officials believe that the Belgian proposal could provide the basis for a formula to satisfy Chirac. Belgium has called for changes to the Union treaty so that warnings could be issued to member states if they threaten to violate human rights standards and a mechanism introduced for drawing up possible sanctions against rogue governments.

"If the Austrians accept this, the French could say it is OK," said one diplomat.

Austria's EU Ambassador Gregor Woschnagg said this week that his government was studying the idea. "The proposal is an interesting one which we are treating with a positive spirit," he told European Voice.

EU governments are warning that Austria's aggressive campaign to get fellow Union member states to end their diplomatic sanctions against Vienna could be counterproductive - prolonging the country's political ostricism instead of ending it.