Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2003 (2. évfolyam)
2003 / 2. szám - EURÓPA - Kiss J. László: A birodalomtól az integrált kisállamig. A „német nemzettől" az „osztrák nemzetig" az Európai Unióban
Résumé patriots could hardly be called democrats. The new state, as the "first victim" of the Third Reich was the "creation" of the victorious great powers, and thus the issue of Austrian responsibility could be avoided. Neutrality and its concomitant, sovereignty, as well as prosperity and social partnership, which strengthened stability, became unifying factors after 1955, and they also constituted the first genuinely common experience in contrast to the German-national traditions. It also served as an example how a certain foreign policy was able to contribute to the emergence of national self- identity. Abandoning neutrality, which had become an empty shell in the 1990s, is all the more difficult because it does not mean only a security option in the past, but it is also a part of the Austrian self-identity. The common foreign and security policy, which includes defense policy perspectives, could be reconciled with Vienna's accession to the EU and even its priority has been accepted. Vienna joined the EU as an Austrian nation, and EU makes it possible to protect the interests of the small nations, just as it makes it possible to represent the interests of German culture without endangering Austria's self-identity. The ethnic, cultural, political, and social elements of Austrian self-identity are all present. The points of national identity often depend on the events, their objects, and the audience. The foundations of self-identity are not solid because of the lack of traditions of a republican and civic nation and the romantic concept of a cultural and linguistic nation. However, the Austrian neutrality never meant that Vienna is in an ideological "no man's land." It pursues a vigorous policy towards Central and Eastern Europe, which has always had a unique subregional content, on the basis of Western values. As a result of the accession to the EU, Vienna's Cemtral and Eastern European policy temporarily lost its dynamic. After the policy of sanctions and in the perspective of the EU enlargement, Vienna announced a plan of "regional partnership" with the newly discovered "Central European" partners for a subregional support of the EU accession, then within the framework of the EU. The questions involves the "Central European dimension" within the EU, and thus the subregional sources of the self-identity of Austria and the candidate countries. Cooperation within the EU can take the form of shifting coalitions in the different questions in harmony with the rules of political geometry on the one hand while, on the other one, the emergence of a "Central European dimension" is much broader than „regional partnership." The Visegrad-countries , and even the states which are left out of the union for the time being, may play a role in shaping the "Central European dimension." The emergence of subregional self-identity in such a development is a controversial and difficult process despite geographival proximity. 2003. nyár m
