French decision on removing Austrian sanctions hindered by Haider's insults

France has come under pressure to resolve the question of EU sanctions against Austria, because Paris holds the EU presidency. A report delivered by a committee of three "wise men" to President Jacques Chirac on September 8th recommended that the sanctions be lifted, and the leaders of Britain, Denmark and Luxemburg have publicly advocated doing so.

The symbolic isolation of Vienna by the EU was agreed last January 31st, after Mr Jorg Haider's extreme right-wing Freedom Party (FPO) joined the Austrian government.

The lifting of the sanctions now appears inevitable, but France and Belgium - which pushed hardest for the symbolic measures last winter - are reluctant to move too quickly. French misgivings were strengthened by a fresh outburst from Mr Haider, who has called Mr Chirac a "pocket-sized Napoleon". In an interview published yesterday by the Austrian magazine Focus, Mr Haider called the "wise men's report" a "debacle" for the French head of state, adding that "Napoleons always end up at Waterloo".

The French Minister for European Affairs, Mr Pierre Moscovici, has said he does not want the "continuing evil" of the FPO's participation in government "to be turned into something banal". It fell to him to brief journalists - many of them Austrian - at a press conference in Paris yesterday.

The "wise men's report" - drawn up by the former Finnish president, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, a former Spanish foreign minister, Mr Marcelino Oreja, and a former vice-president of the European Commission, Mr Jochen Frowein - in no way absolved Mr Haider or the FPO party, Mr Moscovici said.

"This report makes a very negative judgment about the FPO. There is no reason for Mr Haider to act in his usual, provocative and triumphant manner. His renewed attacks against the French head of state are totally inappropriate . . . His is a populist party with extremist tendencies. This party used xenophobic - even racist - language in its campaign . . . it maintains ambiguous relations with the Nazi past."

In Denmark, the sanctions were widely seen as meddling in the internal affairs of a member-state, and Danish leaders fear the issue could doom the September 28th referendum on joining the European Monetary Union. A Danish television journalist asked twice whether the sanctions could be lifted within 24 hours.

Mr Moscovici refused to give a time-frame but said: "Things will not drag on. It will be soon." But he stressed the need for European "vigilance" towards the FPO and said the French presidency would ask its partners to reflect on guidelines should other extreme right-wing parties win elections in the future.

More than a third of the way through the French EU presidency, no progress has been made on two key issues: the Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) that is trying to reform Europe's institutions, and EU enlargement. Mr Moscovici admitted that the IGC has not advanced, saying that he and the Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, had appealed to their European partners.

"Our judgment is that negotiations have not begun in earnest," he said.