Austrian presidency will not press for EU constitution
MARK BEUNDERMAN
20.12.2005 @ 09:56 CET
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik has indicated that her country's incoming six-month EU presidency will not push for the adoption of the EU constitution, presenting a modest working programme together with Austria's successor Finland.
The down-to-earth presentation of Ms Plassnik together with the Finnish state secretary for European affairs Antti Peltomaki in Brussels on Monday (19 December) marked the approaching end of the UK presidency, which commentators had blamed for being full of pretentious claims but short on action.
Ursula Plassnik - "no quick fixes" (Photo: The Council of the European Union)
Austria will take over the helm of the bloc on 1 January 2006 for six months, followed by Finland on 1 July, with both states presenting a joint working programme.
Contrary to Germany, which has already made clear it will try and revive the EU constitution during its presidency in the first half of 2007, Ms Plassnik said that Austria will not press for ratification of the text.
"There are no quick fixes and no instant answers", the Austrian minister said, pointing out that Europe is currently engaged in a reflection period on the constitution.
The reflection period was agreed by EU leaders after French and Dutch voters rejected the constitution in referendums in May and June this year and will be evaluated at an EU summit in June 2006.
"Time is ripening now", Ms Plassnik indicated, adding Vienna will be "very prudent not to pick and choose" single aspects of the treaty for accelerated ratification in the meantime.
Austria's ambassador to the EU Gregor Woschnagg indicated Vienna will play the role of an "honest broker" between those states that want to continue ratification of the text, and those that have ditched the document.
Caution on enlargement
Vienna takes the same, cautious approach on another delicate issue - the planned debate on future enlargement and possibly the future borders of the EU.
Some EU member states, notably France, expect Vienna to initiate a broad, fundamental discussion on the EU's readiness to absorb future members, announced for 2006 in last week's EU leaders summit conclusions.
But Austrian officials did not show much ambition to kickstart the enlargement debate.
The issue does not figure in the Austrian-Finnish working programme, while diplomats said no meetings or documents over the issue had been planned.
Vienna itself pushed hard in October to get the term "absorption capacity" (the capacity of the EU to welcome new members) in the negotiating framework with EU candidate state Turkey, but at the same time it is careful not to frustrate the EU bids of the western Balkan states, which it firmly supports.
Ms Plassnik called enlargement to the Balkan states a "natural focus point" of the Austrian presidency, announcing that the foreign ministers of the EU hopefuls will be invited to an informal EU foreign ministers' meeting in March.
Other priorities
Meanwhile, the Austrian foreign minister took a humble stance when presenting other priorities of the upcoming term at the helm of the EU.
"It is not up to every presidency to invent the wheel", she stated, adding that Austria as a small country would act as a "pragmatic team player" that would "serve" Europe.
The Austrians will take over growth and jobs, as well as sustainable development and climate change from the UK presidency as key points, but have added little of their own concrete priorities to the EU agenda.
Austrian officials highlighted a high-level conference called "the sounds of Europe" in January, exploring European identity and the "European life model" of high quality of life and social cohesion.
The conference should contribute to laying a new consensus on the debate on the future of Europe, they said.
Meanwhile, Finnish Europe secretary Peltomaki was more concrete in identifying Helsinki's priorities for the second half of the year, stating that his country will focus on justice and home affairs.
Mr Peltomaki said Europe needed a "Tampere II", referring to the landmark summit on justice and home affairs at Tampere during the previous Finnish presidency in 1999.
Budget test
The first test for the Austrian presidency's diplomatic skills will be negotations with the European Parliament on the EU's future budget, agreed by EU leaders on Saturday (17 December).
The European Parliament must sign off on the member states' budget deal, which is €113 billion less than MEPs demanded in June.
"We are aiming at having a solution somewhere by March", said Austria's ambassador to the EU Gregor Woschnagg, who described the upcoming talks with the parliament as "difficult."
"If we dont have an agreement by then, the implementation of the financial perspectives will be in great danger", he added, explaining that in the event, structural funds could not all be paid out from January 2007 onwards.
