Vienna, 28/08/2000 (Agence Europe) - The work of the three "wisemen" entrusted by the Fourteen to report on Austria's political situation gains impetus this week with a meeting on Tuesday 29 August with Susanne Riess-Passer, Austrian Vice Chancellor and FPÖ President, and a three-day meeting between the wisemen which should end, on Friday, with preliminary conclusions.
The meeting between Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, former European Commissioner and former Spanish Minister Marcelino Oreja, and the director of Max-Planck Institute, Jochen Frowein, will be held at the Institute's main location, in Heidelberg. Mr Frowein had already expressed the hope that the wisemen will be able to present their report "no more than three weeks after" this meeting. In principle, the final report should be presented to President Chirac on 20 September. (On the subject of talks with the wisemen in Vienna in July, see EUROPE of 31 July/1 August, p.3).
Some FPÖ members had requested that the wisemen also meet the former party leader, Governor of Carinthia Jörg Haider, but both Mr Oreja and Mr Forwein confirmed in recent interviews that they do not feel such a meeting is necessary.
The Welt am Sonntag of 27 August, which affirms it has no doubt that the final report by the wisemen will appeal for the sanctions imposed by the Fourteen to be lifted, also reports that, according to information, the three wisemen plan to recommend that, in future, sanctions may be imposed against a member state only by the EU as a whole and not, as was the case for Austria, in a bilateral and intergovernmental framework.