MPs welcome EU sanctions lifted

MPs welcome EU sanctions lifted

Prague (čtk)
Czech deputies have welcomed Tuesday's lifting of sanctions against Austria which were imposed by the European Union after the nationalist Freedom Party (FPOe) entered the Austrian government at the beginning of the year.
Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies committee for European integration Jaroslav Zverina (ODS) said he was glad that the EU, of which Austria is a member, cancelled the sanctions so quickly. He said he personally had never agreed with the sanctions and considered them a non-effective method complicating relations.
Lubomir Zaoralek (Social Democrat, CSSD), the head of the Chamber of Deputies foreign committee, said that lifting the sanctions and the renewal of relations on a ministerial level would contribute to the improvement of relations between the CR and Austria. He said the EU had many reasons to cancel the sanctions, and one of them could be a fear that the EU sanction policy might negatively influence the forthcoming referendum in EU member Denmark, in which its people will decide on whether to adopt the EU's single currency, the euro.
Christian Democrat (KDU-CSL) deputy Pavel Tollner said that "it was clear after the first month of the sanctions that the EU will step down from them." "It was a bad, erroneous and stray step," he said, adding that he did not like that the CR had joined the sanctions. "From the international policy point of view it was unwise to join the sanctions to such an extent as the Czech Republic as a candidate for EU membership did," he said.
Freedom Union deputy Pavel Svoboda also said that he was an opponent of the sanctions and the cooling down of relations between the CR and Austria. "A country cannot be assessed on the basis of who is in its government, but on the basis what this government is doing. The Austrian government has not taken any hostile step towards the EU which would justify the sanctions," Svoboda said.
Deputy Foreign Minister and the CR's chief negotiator with the EU Pavel Telicka told members of the foreign committee and the committee for European integration that he was optimistic as regards the future of Czech-Austrian relations.