Austria 'fed up' with EU as it takes on presidency

[Aeternitas]

Austria 'fed up' with EU as it takes on presidency

Luke Harding in Berlin
Friday December 30, 2005
The Guardian

Austria's president yesterday admitted that many of his citizens are "fed up" with the European Union, as the country prepares to take over the EU presidency from Britain on Sunday. In an interview yesterday Heinz Fischer conceded that Austrians had "cooled" on the EU, and warned that the bloc was not "limitlessly expandable".

Public scepticism in Austria had grown because of "mistakes" made by Europe's politicians, doubts over expansion, and by the recent bitter row between Britain and France over the EU budget, he said.

Full article

[Menydh]

Among other things, it looks as if Austria has a good historical memory with regards to the Ottoman Empire / modern Turkey.

Unlike Greece which endorsed Turkey's bid to membership of the E.U. in 1999 during the summit of Helsinki, and has ever since been supportive of it.

[Aeternitas]

I think this is good news, after France and the Netherlands... But of course the eurocrats will try to "remedy" the situation.

Correspondents say rebuilding popular support for the EU will be one of Mr Schuessel's key challenges, with recent opinion polls suggesting Austria is among the most Eurosceptic nations.

Source

[Aeternitas]

EU Attempts to Tackle its Identity Crisis

EU political leaders, artists and scientists are gathering in Austria this week to rethink what it means to be a union of 25 nations in the aftermath of "no" votes to a constitution and a general malaise about unity.

[Dr. Solar Wolff]

Today the Pope said Turkey was not in the EU's best interest. Since he said this it will make it more politically correct for others to say also.