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Austrian president calls for end to EU sanctions

VIENNA: Austrian President Thomas Klestil called on Tuesday for an end to sanctions imposed on his country by its 14 European Union partners over the far-right Freedom Party's entry into government in February.

In a letter to Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres, who holds the rotating EU presidency, Klestil also called for the creation of a mechanism to allow the EU to react if it suspected a member state was "departing from European values".

"In my opinion a procedure at community level would be preferable because the accused member would be given an opportunity to respond to fears before any measures are taken against this member," the Austrian head of state said.

Austria's 14 EU partners have frozen bilateral political contacts with Vienna since Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel took office on February 4 at the head of a coalition of his own conservatives and Joerg Haider's Freedom Party.

Haider, who has since resigned as party leader, is best known for remarks playing down the crimes of the Nazis and for his fierce opposition to immigration and EU enlargement.

Klestil made no secret of his own distaste for the new government but said he had no alternative but to swear it in as it had a comfortable parliamentary majority.

Klestil, asking Guterres to circulate his letter to heads of government attending an EU summit in Lisbon on Thursday and Friday, said it had become clear that "a clear distinction between bilateral sanctions and cooperation within the framework of the European Union is in practice not possible.

"It should also be in the interests of the European Union to develop such a mechanism as soon as possible in order to find a way out of the present situation and to end the measures taken by the 14 against Austria as quickly as possible, for the good of my country and of its people," he added.-Reuters