Brussels, 08/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The part of the programme of the new Austrian government formed by the ÖVP and the FPÖ devoted to European foreign policy contains quite detailed passages not only on EU enlargement but also on the next institutional reform and on the development of a European security and defence policy. The essential elements pertain to:
1. Reform of EU Institutions. The government, which indicates that the Austrian Länder may nominate a member of the Austrian delegation at the IGC, states in particular that Austria, during this negotiation:
- will insist on the principle of the nomination of one EU Commissioner by each of the Member States;
- will not rule out a sensible redistribution of the weighting of votes in the Council to suitable areas (with the exception of legislation of a constitutional character, legislation which requires national ratification, exceptions relating to the Internal Market and the decision on own resources as well as particularly sensitive areas, e.g. water resources, town and country planning, land use and the choice of energy carrier);
- will work to enhance the Committee of the Regions (the programme stresses the need to give concrete substance to the principle of subsidiarity);
- and will support efforts to enhance the democratic legitimacy of the European Union, inter alia by drafting a Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union as well as efforts towards more transparency and efficiency;
- will press for more effective control of the granting and use of EU subsidies.
2. Security Policy. At several points, the programme stresses that all EU Member States must take part on an equal footing in the development of a European security and defence policy, and mainly states that the Austrian government:
- will do everything it can to guarantee that mutual assistance is adopted into the EU body of law and will apply also to Austria, which means that, "in the event of an armed attack on one Member State, the other EU states will afford it all the military and other aid and assistance in their power, in accordance with the provisions of Article 51 of the United Nations Charter";
- will ensure "the federal constitutional law on neutrality will be redrafted" in the event of further development of Austria's foreign and security policy. The programme stresses that such modification of Austria's security policy would require the approval of the Austrian population, and hence a referendum;
- will develop relations with NATO according to its own security needs and its full and equal participation in the European security architecture. The solution of later NATO membership is open, and Austria will, without definitive prejudice to its future relations with the Alliance, establish "intensified dialogue" with the latter and will mainly examine, on the basis of this dialogue, whether it must use the possibilities provided by the Membership Action Plan proposed by NATO to the Partnership for Peace countries interested;
- will play an active part in the work of all the new planning and decision-making structures of the EU relating to security policy (including the EU Military Staff), the cooperation bodies between European arms industries (Austria, which notes that its law on war materials should be modified, states that it will accept the invitation to become a full member of the Western European Arms Group (WEAG)), and in the future multinational formations for European crisis management, for example in a Eurocorps created or modified accordingly.
