Austria's EU Presidency

The current EU presidency of Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel will not improve the situation of the EU, says Norbert Mappes-Niediek. "Because Schüssel has never left Vienna in his entire life, and is so deeply entrenched in the Jungschar (a religious organisation reminiscent of the Boy Scouts) milieu and the Catholic University community that he is able to make his tactical decisions very light-heartedly. In this respect, he fits in with the EU as it is now, but not with how it should be. For Schüssel, a convinced European, Europe represents something like the vanished Austro-Hungarian Empire which he and his political friends still openly regard as virtually the best of all possible worlds. In his view of the world, there is no place for the argument about the best alternative which Europe so urgently needs, or for the outrageous concept of sovereignty of the people."

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