Austria is threatened with EU isolation
After Finland and Sweden join NATO, Europe’s security policy will shift towards NATO – with effects on the neutral countries.
Vienna. After joining the EU, Austria reduced its neutrality to core areas. This has enabled participation in the Common European Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) for years. Taboos were broken and political neutrality was de facto abandoned. isolation threatens with the prospective NATO accession of Finland and Sweden. The only neutral allies left in the EU are Malta and Ireland, with very different geopolitical challenges and interests.
What can happen now? Basically there are two options, neither of which are very comfortable for Austria: Either the EU loses importance in terms of security policy because the Atlantic alliance turns out to be far more reliable. Or the cooperation between the EU and NATO will become so close that neutral sensitivities can no longer be taken into account. That could happen, for example, if France pushes through its plans for European defense cooperation in the face of the crisis. Germany, but also Poland and the Baltic States, would then insist on synchronizing EU and NATO interests. In both cases, Austria, as a neutral country, is limited in its political options.