Austria pleads for EU 'fairness'

Euro MPs make their point

Austrian President Thomas Klestil has urged European Union members to show more objectivity and fairness in dealing with his country.

Speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, President Klestil said there were no signs that Austria had departed from parliamentary democracy.

He warned that the country's diplomatic isolation could have serious consequences for the EU as a whole.

EU countries downgraded their ties with Austria after the far-right Freedom Party entered the Austrian government in February.

Mr Klestil: "Austrians are enthusiastic Europeans"

During his speech, the Austrian president mentioned neither the Freedom Party nor its former leader Joerg Haider by name.

"Enthusiastic Europeans"

"We Austrians are enthusiastic Europeans and will remain so," Mr Klestil said.

"There is a firm commitment of Austrians to never again be seduced by nationalism and extremism," he said.

Several Euro MPs, including French Socialists and a group of Greens and Communists, boycotted Mr Klestil's speech.

"We cannot accept an official visit that renders banal the presence of the far right in the government of an EU state," said a statement from the French Socialists.

The Austrian president was also heckled by some MEPs who waved placards reading "No to Haider".

Xenophobic statements

President Klestil asked to speak to the European Parliament after it passed a resolution in February that condemned "all the insulting, xenophobic and racist statements" made by Mr Haider.

Meanwhile, Mr Haider coincidentally arrived in Brussels on Wednesday for a meeting of the EU Committee of the Regions, in his capacity as governor of Austria's Carinthia province.

He arrived in Brussels by private jet three hours early, avoiding protesters at the airport.

Mr Haider complained that some EU states regarded the bloc as a colonial power for subordinating others.

"The problem we are facing is that politicians from other countries, like France, think of Europe as a colonial system and not as a democratic system of communities," Mr Haider said.