1995: Austria’s Entry to the EU

On 1 January 1995 the Accession Treaty between Austria and the European Union (EU) came into force. With it, the Republic of Austria officially joined the European Monetary System (EMS) and gained observer status in the Western European Union (WEU). However, Austria did not join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), but instead the partnership programme “Partnership for Peace” (PfP). Following a period of intense political debate within Austria (1987–1989), the foreign minister, Alois Mock, presented Austria’s application for membership in the European Communities (EEC, ECSC, EURATOM) in Brussels on 17 July 1989 with the strict proviso that neutrality would be maintained. The Commission urged Austria not to make neutrality a barrier to joining the EU and Vienna responded by committing its full and active participation in the Common Foreign and Security Policy. Formally Austria continued to remain a neutral country. After Ireland, two other neutral countries, Sweden and Finland, joined the EU alongside Austria in 1995. 

The review period by the EC Commission (1989–1991) and the adoption of common regulations as part of joining the European Economic Area (EEA) were followed by the accession negotiations (1993–1994), which addressed issues such as the integration of Austrian agriculture into the common internal market, heavy goods traffic through Tyrol, and questions of environmental protections and second homes. The pro-European Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) and Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) had been in a grand coalition government since 1987 and had laid the groundwork for joining the EU in terms of public opinion. This meant that despite the anti-EU attitude of the Freedom Party (FPÖ) and the Green Party, at the referendum on 12 June 1994, 66.6% of people voted in favour of joining the EU.