Is Austria’s neutrality really immutable?
Russia’s army in Ukraine and the subsequent war that began on February 24 gave a major shakeup to the defense policies of Finland and Sweden, two states of the European Union that had remained neutral for centuries and that have applied to join NATO.
On the contrary, things have not changed for Austria, which exhibits the concept of neutrality in black and white in its Constitution. In particular, in article 9a of the constitutional charter, the State “commits itself to a complete national defense” with “the aim of safeguarding its independence towards the outside and the unity of the federal territory, in particular for the maintenance and defense of permanent neutrality “. Any amendment to the Constitution would require a two-thirds majority of the National rat, the national assembly that gives confidence to the government.
On 7 March, the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer tweeted that Austrian neutrality “is not in question”; even the leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPÖ), Pamela Rendi-Wagner (now in the opposition, Ed.) has often called Vienna’s neutrality “non-negotiable”. Furthermore, according to a recent survey by the APA news agency, he seems to have no doubts: 75% of Austrians are against joining NATO, only 14% would be a favor.
All this is explained by the fact that, as Martin Senn, professor of international relations at the University of Innsbruck and the School of International Studies in Vienna, explained to Linkiesta, neutrality “is a symbol capable of transmitting a positive image of Austria, to give the country a good reputation within the international community and has therefore become an integral part of national identity ».
In fact, this political orientation has helped to recognize Vienna as the ideal location for international institutions such as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Agency for atomic energy (IAEA) and one of the two European headquarters of the UN (the other is in Geneva, in neutral Switzerland).
The regions of permanent neutrality are also historical and derive from the Austrian state signed by and by the representatives of the Allied forces in 1955, in which it was decided to leave the country by the United States, United Kingdom, France and the USSR. The treaty was largely based on the Moscow Memorandum signed between Austria and the Soviet Union. Moscow made the perpetual neutrality of Austria a condition of the agreement. In the text it is authorized that Austria “cannot join a military alliance, nor allow the installation of foreign military bases on its territory”.
However, since joining the European Union in 1995, the concept of neutrality has become a little more tenuous. After the Treaties of Amsterdam and Lisbon which sanctioned the birth of the Common Defense and Security Policy of the European Union of which the country is a part. In article 42.7 of the Treaty of Lisbon is the so-called “Irish clause” (Ireland is also a neutral EU state, Ed) which “does not prejudice the security and defense policy of any member state” of the EU; this would in practice exempt Austria from participating in military actions in response to an aggression from another European country.
Being neutral, however, does not mean remaining indifferent to Russia’s violation of international law after the army in Ukraine. Austria has in fact participated, as a member of the European Union, in the economic sanctions against Russia and also has sent support logistics and defense equipment to Ukraine (10,000 helmets, body armor and more than 100,000 liters of fuel).
For this reason, as the expert Martin Senn recalls, the visit in person of the Austrian Chancellor Nehammer to President Vladimir Putin, which took place on 11 April last – received with skepticism at home and defined as “not friendly” by Nehammer himself – is not enough. to define Austria as a “neutral bridge builder” in the context of the war in Ukraine
On the occasion of Europe Day on 9 May, a group of military strategy experts, former ministries and politicians wrote an open letter addressed to the Federal President, Alexander Van Der Bellen, to the Government, Parliament and civil society in which neutrality is defined as “flexible in practice”, whose “current convenience has not really been verified, but raised to an untouchable myth”.
The text expressly calls for “an immediate national debate on security and defense policy”, while the Parliament asks for “legislation to implement a new security policy doctrine”. None of the current political representatives followed up the debate But it is clear that the moment when Austria – whose military spending in 2020 they were 0.84% of GDP, exactly half of the EU average (1.6%) – it will have to deal with its history is closer.