Austria threatens sanctions retaliation

Austria could block plans to enlarge the European Union and reform its creaking institutions if the quarantine imposed on its rightwing coalition government is not lifted, it hinted yesterday.

The Austrian far right in power: special report

Ian Black
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday June 20 2000 01.58 BST

Hopes for movement during the Feira summit appeared to have been dashed as plans for easing the punitive measures were at a virtual standstill. Wolfgang Schussel, the Austrian chancellor, admitted last night that the situation was bleak, after failing to persuade fellow leaders to change tack during a tense discussion over lunch. "I am not very hopeful."

The unprecedented bilateral sanctions were imposed by all other 14 EU member states in February after the far right Freedom party, then led by the controversial Jörg Haider, joined Chancelor Schussel's coalition. Portugal had proposed that Austria's behaviour could be monitored by forthcoming EU presidencies to ensure that it lived up to "European values", although not before Sweden's turn next January.

France, assuming the rotating presidency on July 1, is a hardline opponent of any concessions to Vienna, largely because of the wish to send a strong message to its own far right.

Diplomats said Mr Schussel might have been prepared to accept monitoring by the more neutral European Commission, but only if the sanctions were suspended immediately.

Britain had been quietly lobbying to "open a door" to Austria to allow this deeply divisive issue to fade away with a minimum loss of face.

But the possible price of its enforced isolation was underlined by Mr Schussel's finance minister, Karl-Heinz Grasser, who said: "Enlargement cannot be debated when inside the EU there is no constructive cooperation."