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Austria

Austrian Parliament in Vienna (Photo: EUobserver.com)

Austria has a population of 8.27 million and an area of 83,860 km². It joined the EU in 1995.

After the 2004 enlargement of the EU, the country has 18 seats out of 785 in the EU Parliament and 10 out of 345 votes in the council. 

For Austria, the revised Constitution foresees 19 seats in the European Parliament (18 seats today) and a weight of 1.68 % (Austria’s EU population) of its votes in the Council (as against 2.9 % today).

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 28^th September 2000. The Danes voted "No" anyway.

In the Treaty of Nice there is a so-called lex Austria article. According to Art. 7 TEU 4/5 of the Member States, with the support of an absolute majority of the members of the EU 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 EU Parliament - also representing an absolute majority of members.

The Future

The proposed EU-Constitution has a special lex Austria provision in art. I-59.

Links

Austria's Parliament http://www.parlament.gv.at/ 
Austria's government website http://www.austria.gv.at   http://www.bmaa.gv.at/