Vienna, 26/06/2000 (Agence Europe) - "Mr. Guterres will try to find a consensus for a statement. Though, to be sincere, I do not think there will be more than a careful sign of change. A lifting (of the bilateral measures) is completely out of the question," asserts in Monday's edition of the Austrian weekly "Profil" the Portuguese Secretary of State from European Affairs, Francisco Seixas da Costa, over the initiative on the fourteen's sanctions against Austria announced in Feira by the European Council President. In his interview, Mr. Seixas da Costa criticised the plan, foreseen by the action programme adopted by Vienna in May (see EUROPE of 8/9 May, page 7), to hold a referendum on the bilateral measures, if they are not lifted before the end of the Portuguese Presidency. "The Austrian government would be better off abandoning this suicidal strategy," he said, believing that, if they organise such a referendum, the Schüssel government would be held "hostage" by Jörg Haider, who had launched this idea. (AFP in Vienna notes that a poll published 20 June according to which, while most Austrians are in favour of the lifting of sanctions, 60% of them believe that a referendum on this issue would not "have much meaning)."
In an interview also published on Monday in the Austrian weekly, "Format", the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs Louis Michel asserts, with regard to a possible Austrian referendum, that Chancellor Schüssel must first "stop his threats." Also, with regard to the Portuguese Presidency's initiative, he said that "this does not concern the lifting of sanctions," and that "nothing significant will happen as long as the Austrian government does not change its attitude."