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Austria THE GRAND COALITION AND THE AUSTRIAN PEOPLE'S PARTY CODA, 1955-70
Foreign Policy in the Late 1950s and 1960s
After the signing of the State Treaty, Austria's foreign
policy concerns focused on three issues: South Tirol, European
economic integration, and the meaning of neutrality. The status
of the ethnically German province of South Tirol had been an
Austrian concern ever since the province's transfer to Italy
after World War I. Austria hoped that Italy's participation on
the losing side of World War II might open the door to the Allied
powers awarding the disputed territory to Austria. But the
strategic interests of the Western Allies after the war forced
Austria to settle for a 1946 agreement in which Italy promised
South Tirol autonomous rights.
In 1948, however, Italy undercut the autonomy of the South
Tiroleans by expanding the autonomous region to include the
entire province of Trentino, the total population of which was
two-thirds ethnically Italian. The South Tiroleans appealed to
Austria for assistance. The General Assembly of the United
Nations (UN) adopted a resolution in 1960 instructing Italy and
Austria to enter into negotiations on the issue. Austria's right
to intervene on behalf of the South Tiroleans was thus affirmed
but brought no results until 1969. In the intervening years,
South Tirolean activists undertook a terrorist bombing campaign,
which, Italy alleged, Austria facilitated through lax border
controls. The 1969 agreement affirmed South Tirol's autonomous
rights, including the use of German as the official language. The
International Court of Justice at The Hague was given the right
to judge disputes over implementation of the pact, and Austria
waived its rights to intervene.
Although the OEEC continued to function as a coordinating
body for European economic integration after the end of the
Marshall Plan in 1952, six of its members sought closer economic
integration. In 1957 they formed the European Economic Community
(EEC--see Glossary).
Because Austria's main trading partners, the
Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and Italy, belonged to
the EEC, Austria would have liked to join that organization. But
provisions in the EEC agreement imposed obligations in time of
war, which were viewed as inconsistent with Austrian neutrality.
Further, EEC membership also raised questions regarding
unification with Germany, which was forbidden by the State
Treaty. Austria thus joined six other countries in a looser,
strictly economic association, the European Free Trade
Association
(EFTA--see Glossary),
established in 1960. This was
not an entirely satisfactory solution, and in 1961 Austria sought
limited, associated membership in the EEC.
The Soviet Union objected to Austria's association with the
EEC as a violation of Austria's neutrality. Austria responded
that because its neutrality was a matter of Austrian law, Austria
alone had the right to judge what were or were not violations.
Nonetheless, Austria proceeded cautiously to avoid needlessly
provoking the Soviet Union. EEC members also questioned Austria's
membership. Italy blocked Austria's application to the EEC in
1967 because of the dispute over South Tirol. French president
Charles de Gaulle was cool toward Austrian membership, both
because of his desire to maintain relations with the Soviet Union
and because of his concern that it might strengthen West
Germany's position to the detriment of that of France. Austria's
persistence, the resolution of South Tirol's status, and de
Gaulle's retirement, however, paved the way for an agreement
between Austria and the EEC in 1972
(see Austria and European Integration
, ch. 3).
When Austria adopted a policy of neutrality in 1955, its
leaders made it clear that political neutrality did not mean
moral neutrality. Austrian sympathies clearly lay with the
Western democracies, an attitude that was reinforced by its
opposition to the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 and of
Czechoslovakia in 1968. Nonetheless, Austria attempted to
cultivate good relations with the Soviet bloc countries, which
accounted for about one-sixth of Austrian exports in the
mid-1960s. Austria thus benefited when détente eased relations
between East and West in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Austria's efforts to make itself a bridge between East and West--
an idea the Austrians had proposed as early as 1945--however,
remained a largely unfulfilled ambition.
Data as of December 1993
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