Austrian Presidency urged to take three concrete steps in EU budget, transparency and citizen's rights

12.00.00am GMT Wed 11th Jan 2006

Liberal and Democrat Members of the European Parliament will meet Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel this afternoon in Vienna in order to discuss the Austrian Presidency priorities. ALDE leader Graham WATSON will urge the Austrian Prime Minister to take three concrete actions regarding the EU budget, Council transparency and the rights of EU citizens.

"First and foremost, I urge the Austrian Presidency to show flexibility on the Financial Perspectives agreement. The deal reached last December under the UK Presidency does not give the EU the resources it needs. We believe that the budget can still be considerably improved and we look forward to working with Mr.Schüssel on this", he said.

Referring to the Council's decision on the 20 December to open up certain Council debates and decisions to the EU public, Graham Watson called for the Austrian Presidency to continue to make progress. "Europe's people will only reconnect to the European Union if they understand what governments are discussing and adopting. The Austrian Presidency is in a unique position to follow the momentum and continue the progress made on opening the Council to public scrutiny, which requires little effort but would have a huge impact", he explained.

Finally, Graham Watson called on the Austrian Presidency to ensure that the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia based in Vienna becomes a fully-fledged EU Fundamental Rights Agency. "The EUMC does excellent work in collecting data and analysing the causes and consequences of racism and xenophobia. It is high time to ensure that the EU can fully develop its anti-discrimination policy. But as next week's parliamentary debate on homophobia shows, a fully-fledged Human Rights agency for the EU is sorely needed".

Liberals and Democrats Members of the European Parliament will meet several Austrian ministers, notably Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, Secretary of State Hans Winkler, Minister of Justice Karin Gastinger, Minister of Interior Liese Prokop and Minister of Social Affairs Ursula Haubner.