Austrian 'Yes' boosts EU campaigns

YESTERDAY'S huge 'yes' vote in Austria for joining the European Union is likely to boost the pro-EU campaigns in the three Scandinavian countries, all of which will hold referendums on the same issue later in the year. It will also be greatly welcomed in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, commonly reckoned to be next in line to join the union.

The pro-EU campaign in Austria focused on the long- term economic and political gains to be had from membership. It also stressed that, with fighting in Bosnia and many potential points of conflict throughout eastern Europe, EU membership would be in the country's best security interests. Although the government insisted joining the EU would have no impact on Austria's neutral status, many in Vienna believe it will signal an important step on the road to joining a Western military alliance.

Opponents of the EU, including the far-right Freedom Party and the Greens, argued that, as a net contributor to the union budget, Austria would lose out financially through joining, and would hand over power to an undemocratic, over-centralised Brussels.

The Greens focused their campaign on the environmental impact if, as they fear, the number of heavy lorries running through the Tyrol will increase as a result of Austria opening its borders to fellow union states. The main motorway artery from Italy to northern Europe crosses the Alps at the Brenner pass, and the thousands of lorries which cross it every day have brought severe pollution.

The sense of relief in Vienna's corridors of power over yesterday's 'yes' was only too apparent. After weeks of apprehension over which way the referendum would go, the Austrian establishment - the government, employers and trade unionists - could finally relax, and celebrate.

'I was always confident we would win. But I never reckoned on such a big majority,' declared Chancellor Franz Vranitzky, who looked a changed man from the nervous figure he cut during the last days of campaigning.

Until yesterday's vote, opinion polls indicated it might be a close-run thing. 'In the end we Austrians confounded ourselves by proving less resistant to the idea of change than we thought we were,' said Annelise Rohrer, political editor of the daily Die Presse.

Scaremongering was the key feature of the campaigning tactics of the far-right Freedom Party, a leader in the anti-EU camp. Jorg Haider, the party's leader, took apparent delight in alerting the Austrian people to some of the things they could expect if they submitted themselves to the 'totalitarian' bureaucrats of the EU.

Austrian Alpine water, he declared, would be piped to Brussels, in return for which Austrians could expect to receive Spanish yoghurt containing lice and chocolate made from blood. Accession to the union would also result in more crime, more unemployment and an invasion of scroungers from southern Europe, he contended.

In the Green Party, the other main component of the anti-EU camp, attempts were being made last night to put a brave face on things. Peter Pilz, a party spokesman, said: 'Our role now will be to ensure the government keeps the promises it made concerning Austria's joining the union.' For the Greens, one of the main promises they will monitor is the government's pledge that joining the EU will not affect Austria's neutrality. They will also keep a close watch on the implementation of a special agreement with Brussels aimed at restricting the number of lorries that thunder through the Tyrol.