Wednesday, November 7, 2001

Austria sets referendum on Temelin dispute January vote will ask citizens if plant should influence Czech EU entry By Kate Swoger Austria's nationalist Freedom Party is turning up the heat in the ongoing dispute over the future of the nuclear power plant at Temelin. The party has pushed through a nonbinding referendum that will ask Austrians if they want their government to consider using the nuclear issue to bar Czech entry into the European Union. SHUT DOWN The Temelin power station was shut down for repairs Oct. 31 after a fuel-pump leak in a non-nuclear section. The temporary closure will not delay the plant's launch, slated for early next year, according to Temelin spokesman Milan Nebesar. Repairs are expected to take three weeks. The plant has been plagued by minor problems since it went on line 13 months ago. The Czech Republic hopes to join the 15-member EU by 2004 in the first wave of Eastern European expansion. The referendum, set for January, comes after a year of intense protest in which non-nuclear Austria has assailed the potential safety hazards of the south Bohemia plant, a hybrid of Soviet and Western technology. It also comes as the Czech Republic tries to close the so-called energy "chapter" of its EU negotiations. Energy is one of 31 areas where the country must bring its laws in line with EU norms. EU member states must unanimously sign off on each chapter. Some analysts say the Freedom Party's efforts are an attempt to score political points at home by undermining Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel's People's Party. Schussel's conservative coalition government includes the Freedom Party. While the chancellor's party has been critical of the Temelin plant, it has refused to link its closure to Czech EU entry. The Freedom Party wants Vienna to exercise its EU veto power in an effort to force Temelin's closure. "[The referendum] is a good instrument to drive Schussel into a corner," said Hans-Georg Heinrich, a University of Vienna political scientist. The referendum, a Freedom Party idea, will be held the week of Jan. 14-21, with voters who support the idea of a government debate on the EU veto asked to register their backing at polling stations. If 10,000 signatures are collected, the Austrian Parliament will be obliged to debate, but not necessarily support, the idea of an EU ban. Heinrich said former Freedom Party leader Jorg Haider, still a key figure in the party, was using populist sentiments to political advantage. Most Austrians, he added, were largely ignorant on the nuclear issue. "[Haider] is playing, but playing skillfully," Heinrich said. Lately, Brussels has shown waning patience with Austria's objections. Last December, the EU brokered a bilateral agreement at Melk, Austria, between Vienna and Prague that was intended to reconcile the two sides. In an Oct. 22 letter to Schussel and Prime Minister Milos Zeman, European enlargement commissioner Gunter Verheugen said doubts about Temelin had been eliminated and again called for reconciliation. Czech officials, meanwhile, are treating the referendum as a domestic spat within Austria. "There's hardly anything we can do about it. ... We've basically fulfilled our part in the process," said Jiri Schneider, director of policy planning department at the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Jan Kavan said he expects the Melk process to be finished by mid-December. If the Melk agreement and the energy chapter are closed before the referendum, it would play to Schussel's advantage, Heinrich said. "That would be right up Schussel's ally. He can then say, 'Brussels has spoken,'" Heinrich said, adding that he doubts the referendum will win the needed support. "When people see that Brussels has decided and most of the political elites are going along, they won't be inclined to be revolutionaries." Kate Swoger's e-mail address is kswoger@praguepost.cz