EU: EU is not top of the pops in Mozart's city, writes Jamie Smyth in Salzburg
Some of Europe's top politicians, intellectuals and artists will gather in Salzburg today to discuss the future of the EU. The "Sound of Europe" conference, which marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Mozart, is the first attempt by Austria to point the way to the reinvigoration of the union after the setback caused by votes against the EU constitution in referendums in France and the Netherlands.
However, the current EU president's campaign to reconnect citizens with the EU will face its toughest challenge at home in Austria, where the latest Eurobarometer opinion poll shows that less than a third of the public think EU membership is a "good thing".
"There is a sense of frustration among smaller and medium-sized countries that have a difficult life within the EU," says Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, who notes that small states find it hard to influence decision-making in the union.
When Austria took over the EU presidency earlier this month Schüssel criticised two recent decisions made by the European Court of Justice - one that ruled that German students should be able to study free in Austria and another related to transit traffic problems in western Austria.
In both cases the court ruled against Austria, angering public opinion and showing how the EU is extending its powers.
"Austrians have lost their confidence in the EU," says Andreas Molzer, an MEP from the far right Freedom Party. "They think they are the 'paymasters' of the EU, without any rights . . . Brussels gives the directives and Vienna has to fulfil them."
Molzer cites Vienna's decision to sanction EU accession negotiations with Turkey, which went against the wishes of 80 per cent of the public, and its agreement to increase its EU budget contributions, as examples of a political establishment that feels responsible to Brussels rather than its own people.
Some commentators, including EU commissioner Charlie McCreevy, blame the EU's decision to sanction Austria for allowing the far right Freedom Party into a coalition government in 2000 for the loss in public support for the union.
For several months that year EU officials refused to co-operate with their Austrian counterparts in protest at the government, which included far-right politician Jörg Haider.
"That was a big mistake," says one Austrian diplomat. "It showed that the EU wasn't willing to acknowledge the democratic will of the people."
In the grounds of Vienna University, student Stephanie (26) says Austrians are very independent-minded and don't like to be told what to do.
But she says young people are more positive about EU membership than the older generation.
"Older people probably don't see the benefits of EU member-
ship as much as we do. They don't travel much, or go abroad to study, and they liked the schilling."
But most Austrians see the expansion of the EU as a threat, not an opportunity. In the latest Eurobarometer poll just 29 per cent said they favoured future EU enlargement, the lowest result recorded across all member states.
The Turks raise particular anxieties among the public. With unemployment in Austria hovering close to its highest level since the war - although at 5.2 per cent still far from critical - fears of a deluge of foreign workers are alive on the streets of Vienna, which is just a 40-minute drive from Slovakia.
Austrian foreign minister Ursula Plassnik is now pledging to open a debate on the EU's frontiers and is pushing the concept of "enlargement fatigue".
She also wants to start an EU dialogue between citizens, governments and national parliaments.The business community is eager to help improve the EU's image in Austria, according to Christian Mandl, a director at the Federal Economic Chamber.
"More dialogue and discussion with the public are necessary. That was the reason the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber organised a bus tour [ on the subject of the EU] throughout Austria last autumn and we will continue this in spring," says Mandl, who points to a dearth of information since the successful referendum in 1994.
The government hopes that its presidency of the EU, which runs until the end of June, will give the union a boost in popularity at home.
The plan did not get off to a good start when a publicly funded artistic project, which used pornographic posters of people wearing masks portraying the heads of world leaders, caused outrage in the opening week of the presidency.
But with the posters removed and Mozart joining the campaign, perhaps Austrians will find it easier to warm to the EU this year.
The city's alive with the sound of Mozart: Weekend 5