{"id":5207,"date":"2024-12-31T11:30:49","date_gmt":"2024-12-31T11:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan.thatscommunication.de\/it-was-a-good-decision\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T08:22:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T08:22:30","slug":"it-was-a-good-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan.thatscommunication.de\/en\/it-was-a-good-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"It Was a Good Decision"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 January 2025 marks the 30th ‘anniversary’ of Austria’s EU membership. The path to this was not always easy, but very sensible. Now is the time to shape the foreign and security policy dimension of the European Union. A commentary by Rainhard Kloucek <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A two-thirds majority of Austrians (i.e. those who participated in the referendum) voted on 12 June 1994 in favour of Austria joining the European Union. On 1 January 1995, the Alpine Republic became a member, along with Finland and Sweden. On 13 October 1996, the Austrian members of the European Parliament were directly elected for the first time. <\/span><\/p>\n

The path to this was not always easy. It was made possible by geopolitical changes. In 1955, the Alpine Republic voluntarily declared its perpetual neutrality. This voluntary declaration of neutrality was a prerequisite for regaining full state sovereignty and for the withdrawal of the Soviet occupation army. <\/span><\/p>\n

European unification, which originally dates back to Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi’s Pan-European concept presented in Vienna, began in Western Europe after the Second World War with the European Coal and Steel Community, founded at the time by six states. It was the era of the Cold War, the division of Europe, the barbed wire or the Iron Curtain that split Europe into two parts: the free West and the Moscow-controlled Eastern Bloc. Between them lay the neutral countries of Austria, Finland and Sweden. Then there were also the non-aligned countries, such as communist Yugoslavia. <\/span><\/p>\n

The community of six grew, both geographically and in scope. The Treaties of Rome speak of an ever closer union. It was not just about economic cooperation but also about politics. The accession of Spain, Greece and Portugal was clearly politically motivated. All three countries had been under military rule for many years. Membership of the European Community was intended to consolidate democracy and the rule of law in these states as well. <\/span><\/p>\n

When the FP\u00d6 demanded accession to the EC<\/h5>\n

Austria belonged to EFTA (European Free Trade Association). Only one party in this country demanded accession to the EEC (European Economic Community) or later to the EC: the FP\u00d6. From today’s perspective, this seems completely absurd. <\/span><\/p>\n

At the universities, there was a student faction that also advocated for EC accession: the JES student initiative. At that time, it was already a member of the Paneuropa-Union, which also campaigned for Austria’s EC accession. However, the country’s neutrality spoke against it for many. The proponents of this thesis could claim one small argument: all twelve then-member states of the EC were also NATO members. <\/span><\/p>\n

This changed in 1989 with the Pan-European Picnic on 19 August, which heralded the beginning of the end of the Eastern Bloc. It was also the time when Austria still had a foreign minister of geopolitical stature: Alois Mock. He was one of the first to foresee the approaching storm in old Yugoslavia, launching numerous initiatives that many Western Europeans either did not share or only did so too late. Many a politician in Western Europe felt that they did not want to lose the First World War with the end of Yugoslavia. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even in Austria, there were not many politicians who thought like Mock. In the SP\u00d6, there was still a sentiment that the former Foreign Minister Erwin Lanc (at least, that is how the chronicler remembers the statement) expressed with the words: We can make a mess ourselves. However, the political upheavals in Europe spoke in favour of joining European unification. <\/span><\/p>\n

From a Western European to a Pan-European Project<\/h5>\n

With the end of the Iron Curtain and finally the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, European unification had transformed from a Western European to a pan-European project. Some at the time spoke of a reunification of Europe. Austria, which for decades lay on a dead border in the East, benefited enormously from the opening up to the East and EU accession. An old cultural and economic area could be revitalised. The existing political dimension of European unification (freedom, democracy, market economy, rule of law) had the chance to develop a pan-European, a truly European dimension. <\/span><\/p>\n

However, the end of the Eastern Bloc and the dissolution of the Soviet Union also ushered in a misguided development in European unification. The security policy component, already present at the founding of the ECSC, was neglected. There was an illusion that eternal peace had broken out, and investments in one’s own security were no longer necessary. The peace dividend was cashed in, and the welfare state was further expanded. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yet, as the conservative German publicist William S. Schlamm noted as early as 1978 in his ‘Eulogy for the State’ (published in the magazine ‘Die Zeitb\u00fchne’, which he co-edited with Otto von Habsburg), the welfare state needs accountants, not statesmen. A look at Europe’s hesitant policy in supporting Ukraine shows that the ‘Zeitenwende’ (turning point), proclaimed by Olaf Scholz almost three years ago, has still not reached the minds of leading European politicians.<\/span><\/p>\n

For Austria, joining the EU was a very good decision. Even if the approval of Austrians for the EU, currently at 60 percent, is not exactly a record high, it is nevertheless clear. <\/span><\/p>\n

Criticism of political misjudgements must be voiced<\/h5>\n

This does not mean that everything currently operating under the banner of the EU must be unconditionally supported. Criticism of EU policy is not only permitted but also necessary. It is also permitted and necessary to criticise Austrian politics. <\/span><\/p>\n

In many ways, the virtues that brought Europe its global standing have been neglected. Consider the concept of ordoliberalism, which once enabled the German economic miracle and thus became a recipe for success for Europe. Instead, the state was glorified as the saviour in all situations \u2013 a claim that neither the nation-state nor the European Union project can live up to. The egocentric and ideologically blinkered view that one could shape the world according to one’s own ideology with feminist foreign policy (to name one example) has proven to be a massive error. <\/span><\/p>\n

The over-bureaucratisation of the economy has not improved Europe’s position in the world. On the contrary. The dynamism in other world regions is reflected, among other things, in a deindustrialisation of the old continent. With the originally French concept of planification, i.e., a state-controlled economy, this development cannot be stopped, let alone reversed. This reversal will probably only be possible through good old ordoliberalism: framework conditions in which a market economy can develop, where not every innovation is taxed and over-regulated before it can even unfold. And this reversal will be necessary, because the European welfare model also needs a functioning economy. The illusion of cheap Russian gas, with which one could afford high labour costs due to low energy costs, was already an illusion 25 years ago. <\/span><\/p>\n

Foreign and Security Policy<\/h5>\n

If we want to further develop the European unification peace project \u2013 which, incidentally, has been very successful but so far only inwardly focused \u2013 it will be necessary to infuse life into the geopolitical dimension of this project. A European foreign and security policy must finally be recognised as a primary goal of the EU. <\/span><\/p>\n

Austria, which belongs to no military alliance, which is aware of its smallness in a large Europe, which has benefited so much from the single market due to its central location in Europe, could play a stimulating role here. Thirty years ago, this country proved that it could think about the future. Nothing prevents us from proving it again today. <\/span><\/p>\n

c Featured image: European Union 2019 Mauro-Bottaro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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