Austria’s Kurz wants renegotiation of EU’s Lisbon treaty

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz called on Friday for the renegotiation of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty and tough action on countries letting migrants transit ahead of key EU elections this month.

Published: 4 May 2019 11:35 CEST

Austria's Kurz wants renegotiation of EU's Lisbon treaty

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he believed the Lisbon Treaty is now out of date. Photo: Hans Klaus Techt/APA/AFP

Kurz's centre-right People's Party (OeVP) is stepping up its campaign for the European Parliament elections and he gave a pool interview to several Austrian newspapers.

“A new treaty is needed with clearer sanctions for members who run up debts, punishments for countries that wave through illegal migrants without registering them, as well as tough consequences for breaches of the rule of law and liberal democracy,” Kurz said.

He said that “much had changed” since the 2007 Lisbon Treaty, pointing to the eurozone and migration crises and Brexit.

A treaty renegotiation would require unanimous consent from all EU member states. In the same interview, Kurz expressed scepticism over any cooperation between the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) — to which the OeVP belongs — and parties further to the right in the European Parliament.

“We don't want to hand over the EU to the extreme fringes on the left or right, we need instead a strong politics of the centre,” he said.

At home the OeVP has been in coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) since elections in late 2017 but in recent weeks Kurz has come under increasing pressure to condemn the actions of some FPOe members.

Kurz also said he was in favour of ending the practice of MEPs shuttling between Strasbourg and Brussels and called for the European Parliament to be permanently based in the Belgian capital.

France has always opposed giving up its European Parliament site in Strasbourg but referring to French President Emmanuel Macron and his own reform programme for Europe, Kurz said: “He who demands reforms must also be

prepared to make them where it hurts.”

The Austrian chancellor wants to reduce the size of the European Commission and ending the practice whereby each member state automatically receives a commissioner.

The posts should be apportioned on a rotating basis, he said, adding that currently “there are more commissioners than areas of responsibility”.

While supporting a renewed focus for the EU on security and foreign policy, Kurz said he was against the prospect of relinquishing command responsibilities to a common European army.

As for the next European Commission which will be appointed later this year, Kurz said “a generational change at the top” was needed, “with a new policy direction”.

Faced with Russia’s war in Ukraine, the potential return of Donald Trump as US president and competition from China, the new commission will need to steward the EU at a time of global uncertainty.

To confront the challenges, von der Leyen handed powerful economic portfolios to France, Spain and Italy — with a hard-right candidate from Rome taking a top role in a commission seen shifting broadly rightward.

“It’s about strengthening our tech sovereignty, our security and our democracy,” the commission chief said as she announced the team at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

France’s outgoing foreign minister Stephane Sejourne was handed an executive vice president role overseeing industrial strategy, after von der Leyen ousted Paris’s first nominee.

Spain’s Teresa Ribera, a socialist climate campaigner, was also made an executive vice president, tasked with overseeing competition and the bloc’s transition toward carbon neutrality.

As Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds on through a third year, security and defence assumed a new prominence.

Former Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius landed a new defence role overseeing the EU’s push to rearm, making him one of several hawkish Russia critics in eastern Europe to receive a prominent position.

Those also include Estonia’s ex-premier Kaja Kallas, already chosen by EU leaders as the bloc’s foreign policy chief.

And Finland, another country neighbouring Russia, saw its pick Henna Virkkunen given a weighty umbrella role including security and tech.

As part of the bloc’s careful balancing act, the German head of the EU executive had to choose the lineup for her second term from nominees put forward by the other 26 member states.

That has meant treading a political tightrope between the demands of competing national leaders — and putting some noses out of joint.

The highest-profile casualty was France’s first-choice candidate Thierry Breton, who quit suddenly as internal market commissioner on Monday accusing von der Leyen of pushing Paris to ditch him.

Von der Leyen fell short in her efforts at gender balance, ending up with 40 percent women after pressuring member states for female nominees.

But women obtained the lion’s share of executive VP roles, with four of six posts.

Controversial Italian pick

The choice of who gets which job is an indication of where Brussels wants to steer the European Union — and the weight commanded by member states and political groupings after EU Parliament elections in June.

Cementing its status as parliament’s biggest group, Von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party commands 15 of 27 commission posts — to the chagrin of left-wing lawmakers like France’s Manon Aubry who warned of a lurch “far to the right” in terms of policies too.

Among the powerful vice presidents is Italy’s Raffaele Fitto, handed a cohesion brief in a nod to gains made by far-right parties in the June elections.

Giving a top role to a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post-fascist Brothers of Italy party has raised hackles among centrist and leftist groups — while Meloni said it “confirms the newfound central role of our nation in the EU”.

After Green party losses at the June ballot, whether climate would remain high on the agenda and which commissioners would steer green policy was a subject of scrutiny.

As well as Ribera’s overarching role, the centre-right Dutchman Wopke Hoekstra will carry on in a position handling climate and the push to make the EU carbon neutral.

Among other eye-catching choices, Croatia’s Dubravka Suica obtained a new role overseeing the Mediterranean region, and the enlargement gig went to Slovenia’s Marta Kos — yet to be confirmed as her country’s candidate.

Other important figures going forward look set to be Slovakia’s Maros Sefcovic, handling trade, and Poland’s Piotr Serafin, who will steer negotiations over the bloc’s next budget.

All would-be commissioners still need to win approval from the European Parliament, with hearings to start in coming weeks.

Lawmakers could flex their muscles by rejecting some candidates — or at least dragging them over the coals, as expected with Italy’s Fitto.

Chief among those suspected for the chopping block are Hungary’s Oliver Varhelyi, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s man in Brussels these past five years, who received a diminished portfolio covering health and animal welfare.

The stated target is to have a new commission in place by November 1st, but diplomats say that looks ambitious, with December 1 more likely.