Austria in Europe: Size Matters: But so Do Ideas

In recent years, European policy initiatives from Vienna were rather unusual. Austria regularly emphasized its anti-nuclear policy stance, made the case for a stronger social dimension of the Union by championing efforts to tackle youth unemployment and questioning distortions related to the free movement of people and services, cooperated with its neighbours to fight illegal migration, and was resistant to economic and free trade agreements such as CETA and TTIP. Similar to other countries, discourse regarding the EU in Austria has always been very much determined by public sentiment at home. While defending a proactive European standpoint is still perceived to be risky business, a reality-check on national sovereignty is regularly declined. Yet, Austria has participated in practically all steps of European integration. The country rightly considers itself to be part of Europe’s core and shows increasing approval rates for EU membership despite years of scepticism. However, ambition does not always match reality. The gaps between self-perception, action, and inertia provide for a “peculiar melange”.