EU Prepares Anti-Austria Measures

January 31, 2000 9:18 AM EST

PARIS (Reuters) - French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine said Monday the European Union was preparing measures to be taken against Austria if the far-right Freedom Party joined that country's government.

"Talks are under way (among EU members) to take measures but it is up to the Portuguese presidency of the Union to announce them," Vedrine told reporters,

He declined to give details of possible measures but diplomatic sources said they might be announced in Brussels as early as Monday afternoon.

Vedrine said Franco-Austrian relations faced a probable "difficult phase" if Joerg Haider's Freedom Party joined a ruling coalition, adding that he found the movement's political platform "repugnant."

The French minister said in an earlier radio interview that the EU would watch Austria closely if the far-rightists joined a new cabinet, and that the EU could suspend Austria's EU membership if human rights were violated.

"Europe is no longer in the 1930s. It has mechanisms...which allow a state to be suspended (from the EU) if found guilty of constant, serious human rights violations, but we are still far from any such situation," Vedrine told France-Inter radio.

"What we want is for them to give up (bringing the Freedom Party into the government) but if they don't, then Austria will be under surveillance as no country has ever been in the European Union," he said.

Haider's party is negotiating a new coalition with the conservative People's Party whose leader, acting Foreign Minister Wolfgang Schuessel, is expected to be chancellor.

Vedrine said the possible participation of the far-rightists in government was "an absurd and mistaken path...greeted throughout Europe by disapproval and repugnance."

Vedrine said the problem was mainly one for Austria itself but that its relations with all European countries would be "deeply affected."

His tough words followed a harsh statement this weekend by Haider who branded French President Jacques Chirac a failure.

Chirac said Saturday that the EU had to prepare coordinated measures if the Freedom Party entered government.

Haider described Chirac as "one of those politicians in Europe who has really done everything wrong in recent years that could be done wrong and ultimately lost the elections."

Haider's remarks, characteristic of the frequently belligerent style that has made him one of Europe's most controversial politicians, were likely to cause considerable embarrassment to Schuessel, who has been trying to persuade Austria's neighbors that he can "tame" the right-wing leader.

Haider, 50, is best known for making remarks which appeared to play down the crimes of the Nazis. A fairly forthright apology he made in November has failed to quell a storm of international protests.