Brussels - The President of Austria, Mr Thomas Klestil, an opponent of the current governing coalition, yesterday appealed to the EU to judge Austria by its actions and to recognise that it had not lost its European vocation, Patrick Smyth reports.
In Brussels on a visit to the President of the Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, Mr Klestil warned that the diplomatic boycott of bilateral contacts with Vienna impinged on EU business. "Practice has shown that bilateral matters overlap and that in many cases it is impossible to draw the line between the two," he said, urging the EU to "give Austria a chance".