Europe South Asia Asia Pacific Americas Middle East Africa BBC Homepage World Service Education
BBC Homepagelow graphics version | feedback | help
BBC News Online
 You are in: World: Europe
Front Page 
World 
Africa 
Americas 
Asia-Pacific 
Europe 
Middle East 
South Asia 
-------------
From Our Own Correspondent 
-------------
Letter From America 
UK 
UK Politics 
Business 
Sci/Tech 
Health 
Education 
Entertainment 
Talking Point 
In Depth 
AudioVideo 
Wednesday, 22 March, 2000, 03:11 GMT
Austrian leader urges end to sanctions
Klestil/Haider
Mr Klestil said he had no choice but to accept Mr Haider's party
Austrian President Thomas Klestil has called on members of the European Union to lift their sanctions against his country, imposed after the far-right Freedom Party entered the government in February.

In a letter to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, who holds the rotating EU presidency, Mr Klestil also called for the creation of a mechanism to allow the EU to react if it suspected a member state was "departing from European values".

"In my opinion a procedure at community level would be preferable because the accused member would be given an opportunity to respond to fears before any measures are taken against this member," the Austrian leader said.


demo
Protests have raged in Austria since the Freedom Party took power
Austria's 14 EU partners froze bilateral ties in February when the conservative People's Party formed a government including the Freedom Party of Joerg Haider.

Mr Haider has since resigned as party leader, but had previously caused controversy with his remarks playing down the crimes of the Nazis and for his opposition to immigration and EU expansion.

The Austrian president had expressed reservations about the Freedom Party's place in the coalition, but said he had no alternative but to swear it in as it had a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Co-operation

Mr Klestil asked Mr Guterres to circulate his appeal for an end to sanctions to heads of government at an EU summit in Lisbon on Thursday.

The Austrian leader said it had become apparent that "a clear distinction between bilateral sanctions and co-operation within the framework of the European Union is in practice not possible."

"It should also be in the interests of the European Union to develop such a mechanism as soon as possible in order to find a way out of the present situation and to end the measures taken by the 14 against Austria as quickly as possible, for the good of my country and of its people," he added.

Search BBC News Online

Advanced search options
Launch console
BBC RADIO NEWS
BBC ONE TV NEWS
WORLD NEWS SUMMARY
PROGRAMMES GUIDE
Europe Contents

Country profiles
See also:

08 Mar 00 | Europe
Europe stands firm on Austria
26 Feb 00 | From Our Own Correspondent
Austria's new resistance
04 Mar 00 | Europe
EU Austria protest reaches UN
Internet links:


The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

Links to other Europe stories are at the foot of the page.


E-mail this story to a friend

Links to more Europe stories