The year 2000, began with the EU at odds with the Austrian party headed by Joerg Haider

European Union may cut ties to Austria
Far-right Austrian party stirs fear of totalitarianism
Cohen takes Europe to task on defense goal
Moves against Austria extraordinary
Why is Europe Scared?
Angry Schuessel says Austria won't bow to EU isolationism
Cybercrime outpacing efforts of world's industrialized nations
China concludes deal to open markets to European Union
Putin aims to reassert Russia's global role
G-8 targets poorest countries economies
Central banks prop up euro, but future cloudy
Wealthy nations decide against oil tax cuts as way to aid euro
European Union countries to begin pledging troops for defense force
European Union, Balkan leaders to hold first summit meeting
Rioting erupts at EU summit
Pope's visit with Haider protested


• 2/1/2000 - European Union may cut ties to Austria by George Jahn, The Associated Press.
      Vienna, Austria -- The European Union warned it would take steps of severing most political contacts with any Austrian government that includes a far-right party whose leader has praised aspects of Adolf Hitler's regime "orderly employment policy" and lauding veterans of the Waffen SS, a decade ago.    The warning followed a series of verbal attacks by Joerg Haider on the leaders of France and Belgium for opposing any role for his party in the Austrian governement.    The center-right Austrian People's Party has been holding talks with Haider's populist anti-immigration Freedom Party, which finished second in recent elections.    Haider believes the EU were more anti-democratic than himself.    The other 14 European Union members would curtail bilateral contacts with Vienna, oppose Austrian appointments to international organizations, in order to combat undemocratic developments in a member country, which cannot be tolerated.
• 2/3/2000 - Far-right Austrian party stirs fear of totalitarianism - Europe's scars fuel opposition to coalition role - by Anne Swardson, The Washington Post.
      Paris -- Haider's controversial words from October 1990 through November 1999 appear to play down the crimes of the Nazis.    The Western Europeans see him as the ghosts of 60 years past, promoting the shadow of World War II and Nazi Germany.    Austrian President Thomas Klestil will announce whether he'll accept a government coalition including Haider's party.
      The EU is more than a club, more than a free-trade pact.    Its rules determine national trade and commerce regulations among members.    Every EU national has the right to work in any EU country, and 11 EU members, including Austria, have joined their currencies into one, the euro.    That identity assumes respect for democracy and human rights.
• 2/6/2000 - Cohen takes Europe to task on defense goal - He questions budgets, allies' resolve to cut military gap with U.S. - by Robert Burns, The Associated Press.
      Washington -- Defense Secretary William Cohen told European allies that they must spend more amd make a sustained political commitment to achieve their goal of closing the technological gap with U.S. military forces.    "You cannot continue to cut budgets," Cohen said.
      In a speech to the Munich Conference on Security Policy, Cohen used NATO's war over Kosovo to illustrate that gap.    He said the United States flew half of all the combat missions and two-thirds of all air-support missions during the 78-day war.
      Lord Robertson, the former British defense minister who is now NATO's secretary-general said, "It is neither fair nor politically sustainable to ask the United States to continue to assume a disproportionate share of the costs and the burdens of addressing security challenges in Europe."    Cohen and British Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon signed a "declaration of principles" to establish the basis for improving U.S.-British cooperation in defense trade.
      Cohen said the Clinton administration supports the Europeans' new push for a common defense policy but wonders whether European governments are prepared to spend the money it will take to achieve this.
      Cohen used the forum to make a pitch for the Pentagon's national missile-defense project, which seeks to develop a network of radars and missile interceptors that could defend all 50 U.S. states against a limited ballistic-missile attack.
      Countries such as Iraq, North Korea, Iran and Libya are singled out as possible hostile nations in the next five to ten years.
• 2/6/2000 - Moves against Austria extraordinary - Other similar governments got no such reception - by Donald G. McNeil Jr., The New York Times.
      Vienna, Austria -- Coalition government took office as protesters clashed with riot police outside, and the diplomatic breach widened.    European governments began down-grading relations with Austria.    Yet Italy had a neo-Facist party in its government in 1994, and Europe did not threaten to blackmail its diplomats.    Many Eastern European countries who have had Communists in government and promoted Stalin have had no recourse for their actions.
      This isn't the first rupture with Austria, in 1986 Kurt Waldheim was elected president, who served with Hitler's army in the Balkans in World War II, and Austria was put under virtual diplomatic boycott.
      European diplomats accused Haider of being a racist, a xenophobe and a Nazi sympathizer.    Hitler was an Austrian, and everyone in Europe has at least a grandparent who remembers the Nazis.
      Vienna, Austria -- Right-wing leader Joerg Haider told the Austrian public not to worry about international isolation, saying the new governing coalition that includes his Freedom Party would soon prove its democratic credentials to the world.
• 2/13/2000 - Why is Europe Scared? - Election of Austrian official with a hint of the Third Reich about him causes European Union, U.S. and Israel to take a diplomatic step back from Austria - by Bert Roughton Jr., Cox News Service.
      Austria's new government has caused waves of outrage across Europe, where the Freedom Party is viewed as something between neo-Nazis and conventional Republican conservatives.    They have been quaratined by 14 European Union partners, the United States and Israel.    The Freedon Party view the continent as being overrun with undesirable immigrants and believe countries are surrendering too much sovereignty to Brussels, the seat of the European Union.
• 2/20/2000 - Angry Schuessel says Austria won't bow to EU isolationism by Roger Cohen, The New York Times.
      Vienna, Austria -- Austrian leader Wolfgang Schuessel is angry, nobody is going to bring his government down from the outside.    He will not come crawling and asking for favors from the 14 governments of the European Union against the 15^th member of an emerging new international order, over the democratic expression of a people's will.    He asked why two countries like France and Germany can tell other European Union members what governments they should have?    Haider's Freedon Party took 27 percent of the vote, which is more than his own People's Party.    Schuessel said Austria has no place for xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism.
• 5/17/2000 - Cybercrime outpacing efforts of world's industrialized nations by Anne Swardson, The Washington Post.
      Paris -- Global Internet-related crime of all kinds is evolving so fast that authorities are hard-pressed to keep up, government and law-enforcement officials said at the first international conference on the growing problem of cybercrime.    Repeasts of such disasters as the "Love Bug" computer virus that emanated from the Philippines are virtually unpreventable given the current state of technology and international legal cooperation.
      U.S. Assistant Attorney General James Robinson, D.B. Jegoo of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and French President Jacques Chirac believe the technology has eliminated all geopolitical boundaries, allowing online fraud, smuggling, copyright piracy, pornography and identity theft.
      The so-called Group of Eight major industrialized countries -- the United States, Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Canada, plus Russia, held a conference to begin a broad effort to improve communication and coordination.    A draft treaty negotiated under the auspices of the 41-nation Council of Europe was made public only two weeks ago.
• 5/20/2000 - China concludes deal to open markets to European Union by The Associated Press.
      Beijing -- China and the European Union clinched a deal to open Chinese markets to European goods, clearing China's biggest hurrdle to joining the World Trade Organization and increasing pressure on the U.S. Congress to give it permanent low-tariff trading rights and access to the American market.    European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy said the union's agreement with China makes congressional approval more urgent, so that U.S. firms could enjoy the concessions Europe won.    China does not need Congress' approval to join the 136-member World Trade Organization.    With the European deal in hand, China still needs separate agreements with five more World Trade Organization members -- Switzerland, Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Ecuador -- in order to join.
      Under the China-European Union agreement, tariffs on 150 European items will fall an average of 40 percent.    China also promised to remove a limit on the size of foreign department and chain stores, and auto makers will be able to make engines without Chinese partners and have a greater say in what vehicles to make.
• 7/16/2000 - Putin aims to reassert Russia's global role by Jim Heintz, The Associated Press.
      Moscow -- Russia's economy may be overshadowed by those of the seven richest industrialized nations, but Presidnet Vladimir Putin aims to keep Russia in the spotlight at next week's Group of Eight summit.    Putin is talking with China and North Korea to help bolster Russia's image as a world power and to push Russia's global concerns.
      Russia began its connection with the Group of Seven major industrial democracies -- the United States, Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Japan -- in 1997.    President Clinton invited then-President Boris Yeltsin to attend a G-7 summit that year as an inducement for Russia to back off from objections to NATO expansion.    Russia has watched its superpower status decay with the collapse of the Soviet Union.    Summits such as the one beginning Friday in Okinawa, Japan, are often seen as meeting of the Group of Seven-Plus-One instead of eight equal partners.
• 7/23/2000 - G-8 targets poorest countries economies by The Associated Press.
      NAGO, Okinawa -- The first "development summit" for the Group of Eight -- leaders of the seven richest major industralized nations and Russia, hoping to stem a growing backlash against globalization, pledged today at their annual three-day economic summit to do more to provide schooling, health care and food to the poorest nations.
      This being the last G-8 meeting for President Clinton, who announced that the United States will send $300 million in surplus farm crops to provide school lunches in the developing world.    Japenese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said that the wealthy nations had an obligation to do everything they could to stop poverty and disease faced by poor nations.    The eight countries set a goal of universal primary education for all the world's children by 2015, and gender equality in schools by 2005.    They also vowed to reduce by the year 2010 the number of HIV-infected young people by 25%, tuberculosis deaths by 50%, and the burden of diseases associated with malaria by 50%.
      Leaders agreed to create a digital oppurtunity task force, or "dot force," to expand Internet access into developing nations, and pledge protections for intellectual property rights in cyberspace, as issues to be brought up in the next summit in Genoa, Italy.    Jubilee 2000, a religious-based coalition complained why we would propose internet access in poor countries that cannot supply electricity or running water to millions of people that are starving.
      Russian President Vladimir Putin brought to the group North Korea's offer to shelve its missile program in exchage for outside help with launching space satellites.
• 9/23/2000 - Central banks prop up euro, but future cloudy - Currency has fallen steadily since launch by 11 nations in Jan. 1999 - by The Associated Press.
      Berlin -- The intervention by European Central Bank, the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan had the desired effect initially, pushing the currency briefly up, more than 5 percent.    The ECB has raised interest rates five times this year in an attempt to stifle inflation, pressured in part by a weakened euro.    The actual bills and coins begin circulating in January 2002.
• 9/24/2000 - Wealthy nations decide against oil tax cuts as way to aid euro by The Associated Press.
      Prague, Czech Republic -- The world's richest nations signaled that they would intervene again in foreign exchange markets if necessary to help Europe's ailing currency -- but they ruled out the idea of pushing oil prices lower through a tax cut.    The euro had record lows against the U.S. Dollar, the so-called Group of Seven industrial countries said they would keep an eye on the euro and "cooperate in exchange markets as appropriate."    The closed-door talks were attended by Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and their counterparts from the world's biggest economies -- Japan, Germany, France, Italy, Great Britain and Canada.
      Their talks were held in advance of the annual meetings of the 182-nation International Monetary Fund and its sister lending organization, the World Bank.
      Anti-globalization protesters have vowed to disrupt those sessions.
      In a move likely to aggravate the anger spreading across Europe over expensive fuel, G-7 finance ministers, German Finance Minister Hans Eichel opted against cutting oil taxes to give citizens relief from energy bills that have soared along with crude prices.    The wealthy nations think higher production from OPEC and other exporters would be a better solution, the ministers agreed, one day after President Clinton announced he will tap into an emergency national stockpile to try to slash prices.
      So far, only 10 of the world's 40 poorest nations have qualified for debt relief, a number the IMF and World Bank wanted to see doubled to 20 by the end of the year.
• 11/19/2000 - European Union countries to begin pledging troops for defense force by The Associated Press.
      Brussels, Belgium -- The European Union begins building its own defense force, a 60,000-soldier rapid reaction corps some say strengthens European security and others believe could be the first step in wrecking NATO.    A year after the 15 European leaders decided at their summit in Helsinki, Finland, to launch the process, member nations will begin pledging troops and equipment for the new force, which is to be used for humanitarian, peacekeeping duties.    The Europeans say they need this to act in crises where NATO and the U.S. do not want to get involved.
• 11/24/2000 - European Union, Balkan leaders to hold first summit meeting by Steven Erlanger, The New York Times.
      Brussels, Belgium -- The European Union, which has taken prime responsibility for reconstruction and stability in the Balkans, will hold its first summit meeting with regional leaders today, their task made easier by the election of a new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica.
      The idea of a more integrated, European Balkans and for the summit meeting in Zagreb, Croatia, came from French President Jacques Chirac before Slobodan Milosevic fell from power last month, and was intended to further isolate him.    Kostunica is expected to meet the U.N. administrator of the Serbian province of Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, for the first time.    There is still violence in Kosovo, nationalist parties in recent Bosnian elections, Milosevic's renewed political visibility and strains with Montenegro and Croatia are ready reminders of the difficulties ahead.    The purpose of all this is to help develop market activity and promote democracy and regional trade, the European Union is offering the western Balkans - Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia, Yugoslavia and Albania - the equivalent of $3.9 billion (U.S.) from 2000 to 2006.
• 12/8/2000 - Rioting erupts at EU summit.
      Nice, France -- Hundreds of stone-throwing protesters rushed barricades around a conference center where European leaders met for a summit on unity.    French President Jacques Chirac sent riot police to drive them back with tear gas and stun grenades.    Chirac believes they are radically opposed to the democratic traditions of all our countries.
  
• 12/17/2000 - Pope's visit with Haider protested by The Associated Press.
      Vatican City -- Police firing tear gas pushed back demonstrators trying to march to St. Peter's Square to protest Pope John Paul II's lighting of a gift Christmas tree and meeting with an Austrian right-wing politician known for anti-immigrant views.    Several thousand leftists shouting "Nazi! and Fascist!" gathered at Castel Sant'Angelo near the Vatican to protest Joerg Haider's visit, which has provoked an angry reaction from Jewish groups.    In the past, Haider has praised some Nazi policies, though he later apologized for the comments.
      The pontiff held a private audience earlier with Haider and an Austrian bishop during which the pope was given a Christmas tree from the region of Carinthia, where Haider is governor, which he promised three years earlier.
      Though the Vatican had hinted the pontiff might upbraid the politician for his hard-line stances, John Paul voiced no criticism.
  
  

Last updated January 31, 2004.