Austrian chancellor threatens veto in EU budget dispute

By Timo Kirez

GENEVA (AA) — Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker of the Austrian People's Party (OVP) threatened on Monday to veto the EU budget proposal.

Speaking to the German daily newspaper Die Welt, Stocker said, “There is a pain threshold for Austria. If this pain threshold is exceeded, I will not agree.”

Although Stocker did not specify exactly where Vienna’s “pain threshold” lies, he did point out that “a compromise will only be possible if the new proposal is realistic.”

Stocker specifically criticized the European Commission’s demand for 2,500 additional civil service positions as “completely unreasonable and out of touch with reality.”

“We are cutting 2,600 administrative positions in Austria,” the chancellor said. He expects EU institutions to do the same.

If bureaucracy is curtailed through future staff reductions, that would suit him just fine, Stocker continued.

Austria is currently subject to an EU deficit procedure and must consolidate its own budget. Therefore, Stocker said, he expects Brussels to exercise fiscal discipline and use its resources efficiently.

The EU's financial framework for 2028 through 2034 must be approved unanimously by the member states.

The European Commission had proposed a total budget of €1.985 trillion ($2.226 trillion) for the next seven years.

Opposition to this financial plan comes not only from Austria but also from Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Denmark.