USA: AUSTRIA'S FM STATES UN SANCTIONS UNFAIR

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• published: 21 Jul 2015
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English/Nat Austria's foreign minister has played down threats from a coalition minister that her country would delay payments to the European Union and use its veto to hold up EU decisions. Benita Ferrero-Waldner assured a group of business people in New York, that Austria would fulfil it's obligations to the European Union despite the sanctions put in place in February. Ferrero-Waldner emphasised that her country had come to terms with it's past and that the EU's sanctions against Austria were unfair. Waldner's comments came after a speech she gave at a breakfast sponsored by the Austrian Trade Commission, in New York, on Wednesday. Meeting with business executives and members of the media, Ferrero- Waldner discussed issues arising from the election of Joerg Haider's right wing Freedom Party. Political sanctions were imposed by the other 14 EU-members in February in response to the swearing in of an Austrian government half comprised of the Freedom Party. The EU says Haider's praise of aspects of the Nazi era and the party's distrust of foreigners throws its commitment to democracy into doubt. But Ferrero-Waldner said she disagreed with Finance Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser who was quoted as saying "delays in payments are possible" and that veto threats made by Joerg Haider were "appropriate." However, Ferrero-Waldner noted that as a result of the political sanctions she and other Austrian officials were excluded from some EU functions, leaving them out in the cold. SOUNDBITE: (English) "I've immediately said when this question with regards to a possible veto by Austria could be in reality a reaction to the reaction of the 14 came up, I immediately said that I don't think that this is a good idea. We will certainly not do that. Why? Because I think we have to be correct. And unlawfulness and unfairness should in my opinion not be compensated by unlawfulness and unfairness. I think we have our rights and our obligations, and if at all we will be diminished in our rights, I will immediately protest, and we will then go either to the commission which is always the first step, or we will see what else can be done. And this has happened a few times already." SUPER CAPTION: Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Foreign Minister of Austria She also said that Austria's image among foreign nations would change once Joerg Haider, who is still President of the Freedom Party, resigns on May 1. SOUNDBITE: (English) "Mr. Haider announced that he would step down from the Presidency of the Freedom Party on the first on May, and as far as I know this will happen. And Ms. Riesse-Passer, who is now the Chancellor, will take up the presidency. And this is an important fact, certainly. Because it will also show that the influence that is always supposed to be there, is certainly a much lesser one. He is not in government, the government members of course, they have to go on and implement the government program. And as I said, the government program is the bottom-line. I mean we have carefully negotiated with them. And I think that is the way. And that would be the right way to judge us." SUPER CAPTION: Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Foreign Minister of Austria Ferrero Waldner is a member of the conservative People's Party, which joined the right-leaning, anti-immigrant Freedom Party in a coalition government despite international outrage in February. Meanwhile in Vienna, Haider said Austria should consider leaving the European Union because of sanctions imposed on it by 14 EU partners. Haider has resigned as Freedom Party leader after pressure from EU against him taking post in new coalition government. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/fcaf9ab2a50c44089fc2de0441bfc9de Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork