Austria took over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in a symbolic handover ceremony in Schladming with the attendance of European Council President Donald Tusk, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Austrian Prime Minister Sebastian Kurz. Austria, which has assumed the EU presidency for the third time after 1998 and 2006, has chosen the motto “A Europe that protects”.

The Austrian Presidency in the second half of 2018 has to work on prevailing complex dossiers, namely negotiations regarding Brexit and regarding the Multi-Annual Financial Framework for the period 2021-2027. Another important aspect for the work of the Austrian Presidency concerns the European Parliament (EP) elections that will take place on 23-26 May 2019. Since EP’s legislative period is coming to end, it will be essential to reach agreements on as many open legislative proposals as possible. Therefore, the Austrian Council Presidency has to work on reaching common positions in the Council on legislative proposals.

The priorities of the programme of the Austrian Presidency were announced as follows: Security and fight against illegal migration; securing prosperity and competitiveness through digitalisation and stability in the neighbourhood – bringing the Western Balkans/South Eastern Europe closer to the EU. 

“A Europe that Protects” and the Priorities of Austrian EU Presidency

It is clear that the motto of the presidency “a Europe that protects” reflects the essence of the priorities and the working programme of Austria adequately. While preparing the programme, the Austrian government preferred to approach the migration issue from a security perspective, digitalisation from the perspective of securing prosperity and competitiveness while considering only the Balkan countries as part of EU enlargement policy.

It was not surprising that a special emphasis was put on security and fight against illegal migration by the Austrian Presidency. As one would recall, at the European Council meeting, which took place a few days before Austria took over the EU Presidency, one of the most controversial issues was immigration, and it took a great deal to reach final settlement among Member States. Thus, Austria aims to channel its efforts to reform the Common European Asylum System as well as strengthen the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (FRONTEX), in order to guarantee the efficient protection of the EU’s external borders. Austria plans host a special summit in Salzburg on 20 September 2018, in order to deal with these issues.

A consid­erable share of growth in the EU can already be attributed to the digital economy. Therefore, the Austrian Presidency considers that with an intelligent policy of digital transformation, it will be possible to safeguard the competitiveness and sustainability of the European economy in the future. In order to improve framework conditions for digital business models and services Austria suggested completing the Digital Single Market, modernising public administration on a broad scale and renewing industrial policy.

Regarding the third priority, the Austrian Presidency undertook the task of advocating developing a concrete EU perspective for all Western Balkan/South Eastern European countries based on clear criteria relating to their individual performance and work on achieving measurable progress.

The Missing Item in the Programme of the Austrian EU Presidency: Turkey

While the Austrian Presidency is referring to development of relations with many countries and regions ranging from Russia to ASEAN countries, from the Caribbean to Latin American countries, in its 70-page programme, which sets out its goals and priorities for the next six months, it is very striking that Turkey as an EU accession country was not even mentioned once. As many of the readers may recall prior to the Turkey-EU Summit on 26 March, which brought President Erdoğan and the heads of EU institutions together, the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has claimed that Turkey no longer fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria and therefore EU accession negotiations with Turkey shall be suspended. Lately, the Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl made the position of her country vis-à-vis Turkey very clear by stating that they do not perceive Turkey as an EU candidate country. In the face of this attitude, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu took a realistic approach and said that he did not think that any positive steps were going to be taken during the Austrian Presidency and did not expect any new negotiation chapters to be opened.

It seems that Austria does not want to deal with any issues related to the Turkey within its six month term at the EU’s helm. However, the attitude of the Austrian government overshadows the EU-wide leadership ambitions of Chancellor Sebastian Kurz who constantly emphasises EU's values. On the other hand, Turkey with its new governing system shall reinitiate the reform process in order to fulfil the Copenhagen criteria. The objections of the Austrian government are not new for Turkey. Turkey had faced similar objections from Vienna when the decision regarding the start of EU accession negotiations was taken. At that time, Turkey overcame those obstacles with its ambitious reform process which showed Turkey’s determination to become an EU Member State. It seems that the our previous experiences already provide the answer for Turkey’s EU bid, irrespective of whether Austria holds the EU presidency or not.

You can reach the official website of the Austrian EU Presidency here.