EUROPEAN UNION: EU OFFICIALS UNEASY OVER AUSTRIAN REFERENDUM.

The Austrian Government's final decision on whether or not to stage the referendum in October or November is expected to be taken around 20 September. The People's Party and the Freedom Party have approved the idea and formulated questions to be put to the Austrian people, along the lines of do you agree the Government should use all appropriate means to get the sanctions lifted; avoid the domination of the major Member States; ensure the EU recognises the outcome of open elections; distribute powers between the EU, the Member States and the local authorities: observe the rule of law and human rights; have the Treaty include a Community system to monitor countries to ensure compliance with the EU's founding principles (via an amendment of Articles 6 and 3)?. Mr Haider stressed that the expression "all appropriate means" was "of course" a direct threat to hold up the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) proceedings. This was denied by Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the Austrian Foreign Minister (oVP): "If you consider the questions that will be asked in the referendum, you will see there is no opportunity to block EU decisions", she said. France, which took on the EU Presidency on 1 July, is hoping to have the IGC talks finished by December. It "took note" of the planned referendum and said that "blackmail" concerning the reform of European institutions would "not be in the interests" of Austria.A European Commission spokesman said on 5 July that the EU executive regretted the decision to hold a referendum in Austria and would do its utmost to counter any blocking of the decision-making process that may result. The official stressed that the European Commission...