Austrian leader to protect ecu credentials in Brussels

Austria’s new chancellor travels to Brussels on Tuesday on his first overseas trip because being sworn in, decided to dispel concerns that his coalition with the a ways-proper spells trouble for the ecu Union.

New Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (L) of the humans’s celebration (OeVP) and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen smile after Kurz turned into sworn in on the presidential workplace in Vienna, Austria, December 18, 2017. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Responding to a letter on Monday from eu Council President Donald Tusk that underlined european worries, 31-year-old conservative leader Sebastian Kurz tweeted again that his new government would be “clear seasoned-ecu and committed to creating a fantastic contribution to the destiny improvement of the european”.

an afternoon after he took workplace at the top of a coalition with the some distance-proper Freedom birthday party, Kurz will supply that message in individual on Tuesday night to Tusk and european fee President Jean-Claude Juncker, whose ecu government has spoke back to October’s election with little of the outrage that greeted the FPO’s first taste of government 17 years ago.The FPO has distanced itself from its Nazi-apologist, anti-Semitic beyond, even as surges in abnormal immigration and militant attacks have pushed the european political mainstream rightward, leading to a far more muted response than in 2000.

Juncker’s spokesman would now not be drawn on Monday on what the fee, which returned then floated a boycott of Austria, would be pronouncing or doing. He did, however, make clear that Kurz making Brussels his first foreign experience in office became a welcome gesture.

Austria’s member of the commission, a centre-proper ally of Kurz, known as it a “proper start for proactive ecu coverage”.

but his French colleague was wary: “things are possible extraordinary from the preceding time, in 2000,” tweeted Socialist former finance minister Pierre Moscovici. “but the presence of the a long way-proper in authorities is never with out outcomes.”
The bluntest complaint to this point has been south of the Alps, in which a plan to provide Austrian citizenship to humans residing in Italy’s German-speaking border place has rekindled worries over antique territorial arguments. A junior foreign minister in Rome said the offer may be couched in a “velvet glove of Europeanism” but bore “a whiff of the ethno-nationalist iron fist”.

For a Union battered by means of mounting nationalism that is going nicely beyond Brexit, there is issue too that grievance of Brussels in Vienna can assist fuel the euroscepticism of Austria’s previously communist neighbours in principal Europe, together with Poland, wherein the fee is severely considering enforcing sanctions that had been designed in response to the FPO’s upward push early this century.

In a letter of congratulation to Kurz, Tusk made clear his issues approximately the new coalition in Austria:

“I accept as true with that the Austrian government will preserve to play a constructive and seasoned-ecu function within the ecu Union,” Tusk wrote, noting that Austria will from July enjoy six months of have an effect on in Brussels as chair of eu ministerial councils.

Germany and France, the ecu’s lead powers, also indicated a vigilance approximately Austria in their remarks on Monday which highlighted Kurz’s pledges to foster ecu cooperation.

Kurz’s go to to Brussels comes at the eve of an critical commission meeting on Wednesday in which Juncker’s team will don’t forget recommending sanctions on Poland for its continued to defiance of warnings that new legal guidelines at the judiciary are contrary to ecu democratic standards.