Lisbon / Brussels, 28/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Asked by the Belgian Prime Minister and Foreign Minister who wrote to the Presidency for a EU reaction to the situation in Austria (see above), Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres published the following note: "I want to express my deep concern regarding the possible political evolution in Austria. The EU is not only a single market or a single currency. It is also a Union based on a set of values and rules and on a common civilisation. All EU member states Governments should clearly share those values an rules, and that common civilisation".
In Paris, Romano Prodi also said he was "concerned"; the OVP programme is "pro-European", but should Vienna take decisions contrary to the Copenhagen principles, "the reaction would be obligatory", he declared.