Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel's coalition partners, the far-right Freedom Party, today rejected a deal he negotiated with the Czech Republic on the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant.
Vice-Chancellor Ms Susanne Riess-Passer dashed hopes that a deal between Schuessel and Czech Prime Minister Mr Milos Zeman yesterday would end a long-running row that had threatened the European Union's eastern enlargement plans.
"The agreement is in our view not complete," she told a news conference. It is a step in the right direction but a step which in our view is not enough. Schuessel yesterday accepted Czech assurances about the safety of Temelin, which is 60 km (37 miles) from the Austrian border, in a deal that EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said would end a blockade of the accession process.
But Ms Riess-Passer, leader of the Freedom Party, said the agreement contained many open questions which still had to be addressed before her party would agree to let the Czech Republic join the European Union. Her party would press ahead with plans to force a referendum on Temelin.