Austria
- Austrian Parliament in Vienna (Photo: EUobserver.com)
Austria has a population of 8.36 million and an area of 83,860 km2. It joined the EU in 1995.
After the 2004 enlargement of the EU, the country now has 17 seats out of 736 in the European Parliament and 10 out of 345 votes in the council.
For Austria, the Lisbon Treaty offers 19 seats in the European Parliament against 18 seats until 1 December 2009. The Austrian influence in the Council of Ministers will fall from 2.9 % of the votes today to 1.68 % from November 2014.
In 2000, Austria elected a new government including ministers from Jörg Haider's FPÖ party, which was seen as an "extremist rightist party". The other EU member states reacted by introducing sanctions against Austrian politicians and authorities outside formal EU meetings.
The sanctions were lifted when it became necessary to have a "Yes" vote in the Danish Euro referendum on 28th September 2000. The Danes voted "No" anyway. Haider died in a traffic accident in 2008.
In the Treaty of Nice there is a so-called Lex Austria article. According to Art. 7 TEU 4/5ths of the member states, with the support of an absolute majority of the members of the European Parliament, can warn against a breach of common principles. The voting rights of the state that has been warned may then be suspended by qualified majority in the Council and a two-thirds majority in the European Parliament - also representing an absolute majority of members.
The proposed EU-Constitution had a special Lex Austria provision in Art. I-59. In the Lisbon Treaty it is Art. 7 TEU.
Links
Austria's Parliament http://www.parlament.gv.at/
Austria's government website
