Our Man in Vienna

Some thoughts on the Austrian EU presidency

Source: Krone.at

Next week Austria will be taking over the EU presidency from Bulgaria. It will be the third time for the Alpine country to preside over the EU and it will be the last full presidency before the EU elections, which will take place next May. Therefore, a lot of work lies ahead, especially regarding the legislative proposals. Some initial thoughts and priorities have already been discussed many times in the European media. Just to name a few, there are significant issues such as the MFF, security and defence, managing migration and asylum, as well as the one and only Brexit. However, in reality what can we expect? The motto for the Austrian presidency is “The Europe that protects”, so that can be quite revealing from the start.

First of all, Austria has been (now notoriously) vocal in shifting to the political right after last autumn’s parliamentary elections. The country has been ruled for the past 6-7 months by a coalition government of an increasingly right-wing Austrian People’s Party (EPP group in the European Parliament), led by young and charismatic Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and the far right Freedom Party of Austria (ENF group in the European Parliament), led by the not-so-young but quite charismatic Heinz Christian Strache, now the Vice Chancellor of Austria.

What can be visible nowadays, especially having in mind last Sunday’s mini-EU summit on migration, is Kurz’s plan to promote himself as the leader of the new and rebranded European conservatives, basically the same thing that he did in Austria last year. Ideally, he would like to give Austria a stronger voice in dictating European politics than anyone would have expected. This would mean that he wants to promote the new and a more right-wing EPP, which would be much tougher on migration and security issues, obliterating the legacy of Angela Merkel and her 2015 approach. That is why special attention will be paid to the reform of the asylum system and the issues on the Mediterranean. His recent clumsy statement on the “Axis of the willing” and the latest ideas such as building EU screening centre’s for migrants outside the EU, are probably the best examples of that.

Source: World Bulletin

Regarding the EU enlargement, Kurz will try to influence other Member States into adopting an approach where the Western Balkans are encouraged to enter the EU, as Austria has a strong economic interest in that, while strictly opposing the entrance of Turkey. It is a view that gains him a lot of points on the domestic (Austrian) field, where the majority opposes Turkish EU membership, and he believes that countries with a large Turkish diaspora, such as Germany and The Netherlands, can be his allies on the topic.

At the same time, while he takes control of the EU presidency and focuses on these issues, he will leave his coalition partner FPO to play a more prominent role in Austrian internal politics. After all, there is a reason why Kurz insisted that all the EU work should be placed under the Chancellor’s office, while leaving the other issues to FPO-led Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Finally, everyone is aware that there are certain limits that the EU presidency brings, so Kurz is playing on the same card that brought him the victory in the Austrian elections. To present himself as the “saviour of EU” and as a solution-oriented conservative. All in all it will be a very interesting presidency, with many challenges and issues that have to be solved.