'Wise men' could lift Austria sanctions

Joerg Haider: Hoping for good news

PARIS -- Diplomatic sanctions against Austria could be lifted following the imminent publication of a report on the country's human rights record.

Austria's European Union partners imposed the sanctions in February, when Joerg Haider's far right Freedom Party was included in the coalition government.

Haider, who had made comments in praise of the Nazis, stood down as leader soon afterwards but the embargo remained in place.

A panel of experts -- called "the three wise men" -- were asked to look at the policies of the Freedom Party and its impact on the government as part of the inquiry.

Their findings will be submitted to President Jacques Chirac of France, which currently holds the EU presidency, at 1600 GMT on Friday in Paris.

Chirac has promised to make the report public hours later and insists he has no advance knowledge of what it will say.

Austria's 14 EU partners will use the report as a basis for assessing whether to lift what is seen as an increasingly embarrassing quarantine on Vienna.

The sanctions bar high-level political contacts with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition government and prevent the appointment of any Austrians to international posts, in effect preventing the EU from working as efficiently as it could.

The action against Austria has also become a factor in Denmark's referendum on whether or not to join the single currency. Some anti-Europeans say it is an example of larger EU countries treating a smaller partner unfairly.

Austria has threatened to hold a referendum in October on the sanctions, if they remain in place.

Haider, who remains governor of the Austrian province of Carinthia, led the Freedom Party from 1986.

Under him the party had its best showing in the Austrian parliamentary elections since it was founded in 1945, taking 27 percent of the vote.

During the parliamentary campaign the party stirred voter concern about immigration from former Eastern Bloc communist countries.

The son of a lower-level Nazi Party official, Haider was forced to quit an earlier term as Carinthia's governor in 1991, after saying that Adolf Hitler had "sound employment policies." He also once called veterans of the Nazi Waffen SS "men of character."

Reuters contributed to this report.

Cautious reaction to Haider's resignation
February 29, 2000
Austrian rightist Haider resigns as party chief
February 28, 2000
Dozens hurt in Austrian protests over new government
February 5, 2000

Republic of Austria
European Union

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.