Austria human rights report 'imminent'

The Austria issue troubled a weekend meeting of EU ministers

EVIAN, France (Reuters) -- A report on Austria's human rights record will be handed to French President Jacques Chirac by the end of the week, according to Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Ferrero-Waldner said she expected the report, commissioned by the other 14 European Union states, to be an objective account.

She said she hoped her partners' diplomatic sanctions against Austria could be lifted before Denmark's referendum on September 28 on whether to join the EU single currency.

The sanctions, imposed in February after the far-right Freedom Party entered the Vienna government, troubled a weekend gathering of EU foreign ministers in the French resort of Evian even though they were not on the agenda.

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Ministers and senior officials stubbornly ducked the question of how the EU states could climb down from a decision that threatens to affect the Danish referendum and plans to reform the EU to take in new members.

Ferrero-Waldner, herself a member of the conservative People's Party, told reporters on the second and last day of the meeting: "I assume Chirac will ask his other colleagues for their opinion. Of course we want the sanctions lifted. If there is only a suspension, I will be disappointed."

She declined to say if Austria would go ahead with a threat to hold a referendum on the sanctions if they were not lifted.

She also ruled out, at least for now, the option of holding a referendum on EU enlargement to the east, an issue the Freedom Party wants to link to certain bilateral demands Austria has against candidates such as the neighbouring Czech Republic.

"For the time being, there is no question of a referendum on enlargement in Austria," she said.

Guenter Verheugen, the German EU commissioner overseeing membership negotiations with the 12 candidates, proposed a referendum in a German newspaper interview on Saturday.

German officials promptly said this was not Berlin's position. The German constitution does not even permit referendums.

Ferrero-Waldner, who urges an end to the sanctions every time EU foreign ministers meet, said she was surprised to see how few of them knew exactly when the wise men's report was due.

Her statement that Chirac would receive the report handed the initiative to France, which with Belgium was a leading force in the decision for all EU states to limit their bilateral relations with Vienna to a minimum.

French officials have declined to say how the report, commissioned in June during the Portuguese presidency, will be handled. It could be politically difficult for Chirac at home if France, as current EU president, had to recommend the end of sanctions -- the conclusion the wise men are expected to draw.

The sanctions issue became so complex that the 14 EU states asked outside experts -- international lawyer Jochen Frowein of Germany, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari and Spanish ex-foreign minister Marcelino Oreja -- to study Austria's human rights record. Vienna was incensed but agreed to cooperate.

Seeing an EU member being punished by its partners raised criticism in Denmark, where many people are highly sceptical about the European Union and its single currency, and aroused concerns among east European candidate countries that the EU could pressure them on internal issues.

The freeze has had little impact on business and tourism in Austria, but if no face-saving solution is found it could hamper EU business and delay preparations to admit new member states.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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