Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg, 54, is visiting Spain at the invitation of Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs. A lawyer trained at the University of Innsbruck with experience in the diplomatic service, he is also a former chancellor (he served between October 11 and December 6, 2021, after the resignation of his Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) colleague Sebastian Kurz, in a context of corruption. case). This week, Schallenberg participated with the head of European diplomacy in a round table focused on the European Union’s foreign policy challenges.What about Vadis Europe?organized by the Menéndez Pelayo International University of Santander, Spain.
“What is good for Ukraine is good for the Balkans,” the conservative ÖVP politician said in one of his speeches. “Russia has the capacity to intervene in the Balkans,” he later added in a telephone interview with EL PAÍS.
Question. Austria is a neutral country and not a member of NATO. This means that it does not provide military assistance to Ukraine.
Answer. Austria’s neutrality is constitutional and the majority of citizens support it. Furthermore, we are neutral militarily, but not in terms of values. When the war started, Josep (Borrell) told me that he was going to activate the European Defense Mechanism. I told him that there was no problem: I contribute (with) a constructive abstention. This way, we do not prevent our partners from moving forward. And we collaborate on humanitarian aid: the Austrian government has provided around 150 million euros ($161,932,500) to Ukraine, but if you include everything between public and private contributions, the figure falls between 600 euros ($647,730,000) and 800 million euros. .
Q. Some Austrian parties oppose any form of aid to kyiv; One of them is the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), leading the polls for the upcoming elections.
A. This situation is not unique to Austria: we have this kind of debate between government and opposition in many countries, in Spain too, I think. Some polls put the FPÖ in the lead, but there is still more than a year before the elections. We have lived through difficult times, with a pandemic then a war 500 kilometers from Vienna; However, the Austrian government has sorted all this out. We are optimistic. Look at the results of (the last elections in) Spain.
Q. You say that it is the responsibility of the European Union to ensure that the Balkan countries remain linked to the European family. Was there some sort of displacement?
A. Europe is responsible for its neighborhood, and even more so when these countries are located in the heart of our territory. It is impossible that 20 years after the start of accessions, none of them are part of the EU (referring to Albania, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro ). It’s very disappointing. When the European Union incorporated Greece in 1981, it was probably not able to implement all the economic rules. This was done to safeguard a young democracy. Something similar happened in 1986 with Spain and Portugal: our lifestyle expanded. Obstacles had to be overcome, but five years later Spain was part of the European Community. This did not happen in the Balkans.
Roman G. Aguilera (EFE)
Q. What are the consequences of this situation?
A. We run the risk of creating a political vacuum which will be replaced by another model. This is why exporting stability and security to the Balkans must be a geostrategic interest for the EU. Otherwise, we run the risk of importing instability and insecurity. The solution is contained in the latest conclusions of the European Council: horizontal integration. So far it has been total integration. There was no middle ground. This is the wrong approach: the same problem arises with Ukraine and Moldova, because it will take years to negotiate their accession.
Q. Are you worried about Putin’s influence in the Balkans?
A. Russia has the capacity to intervene in the Balkans: it uses fake news and disinformation to attack Europeans and Americans. Moscow can generate a crisis. And the Balkans are a volatile region: Bosnia-Herzegovina is complex; there has been instability in Montenegro, and problems between Kosovo and Serbia also. The more we are present, the less opportunity others have to intervene. The Western Balkans constitute a geostrategic test for the European Union.
Q. Another challenge emerged in Africa with the convulsions in the Sahel.
A. European soft power in Africa is much less than we thought. After Mali and Burkina Faso, we see that it is extremely dangerous because of its economic, security and migratory consequences. Last year, Austria had the highest number of asylum seekers per capita on the entire European continent. We are surrounded by sovereign states – some of which are members of the EU – and we have received 112,000 asylum applications (in 2022). What is happening in Niger is an African problem and there must be an African solutionbut we must help find this solution.
Q. Do European relations with the countries of the South need to be reformulated?
A. In general, we can do much better. We should talk to these countries, understand them, instead of moralizing or giving lessons. At the political level, we could have a better articulated European strategy. Most European foreign ministers go to the same countries – Senegal, South Africa, sometimes Rwanda – leaving many others in limbo. The same is true in Latin America. We can do better by coordinating. Furthermore, we cannot take the South for granted. Today, countries like China are proposing their own solutions and we must compete with them, as well as with Russian rhetoric. We are losing ground against them.
Q. Austria has just banned TikTok from official cell phones, following in the footsteps of other countries like the United States. Is China’s social media platform an international problem?
A. We take reports on TikTok and the information collected through these services very seriously. This is the big difference between private companies in democracies and their behavior in autocratic systems. In the latter case, there is no firewall between the company and the State. Personally, I don’t use social networks.
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