Austria must take a more proactive stance in formulating EU foreign and defense policy and must not hide behind neutrality, according to EU Parliament Deputy Speaker Othmar Karas.
Karas, who is a member of the conservative ÖVP, was among 90 signatories of an open letter calling on the Austrian government to recalibrate its security policy and adapt it to the new reality of war in Ukraine. The letter called Austria’s current stance on security and its constitutional provisions “anachronistic”.
While Germany announced a turn-of-the-era turnaround in foreign and security policy, and other formally neutral or non-aligned countries such as Sweden and Finland also revised their long-held positions, Austria still clings to its neutrality.
“We don’t need a new debate on neutrality in Austria. But neither should we hide behind neutrality,” Karas told EURACTIV.
For Karas, Austria should take a more proactive stance in shaping the EU’s foreign and security policy.
“A European defense union capable of acting, in which Austria actively participates and therefore also benefits, is in no way incompatible with our federal constitution,” he said, stressing that Austria must “make foreign policy decisions , security and defense” in the EU and internal policy levels must accelerate”.
“Otherwise we will no longer have a role in the world and we will be crushed between the great powers,” Karas argued.
Karas also expects consistent implementation of the Strategic Compass, the EU’s new military strategy, which Austria has also adopted.
Under the Strategic Compass, EU countries committed to significantly increase their defense spending and create a rapid deployment capability of 5,000 men to be deployed “in non-permissive environments”.
“Every euro that is now invested in defense should be used towards a common EU defense union,” Karas said, hoping that national armies would work together efficiently and be well equipped through joint procurement.