Ireland will back moves to lift diplomatic sanctions against Austria in the wake of the "wise men's" report submitted to the French Government on Friday, a spokeswoman for the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said last night.
The French Government took soundings over the weekend from all the 14 EU partners which participated in the bilateral action against Vienna, and diplomatic sources expect President Jacques Chirac to announce as early as this week a resumption of normal relations.
A French spokesman would only say that consultations are ongoing and that he expected a decision "speedily" involving all 14 states.
Given strong support for the lifting of sanctions and the imminence of the Danish euro referendum, Mr Chirac, among the most militant in upholding the sanctions, will be anxious to avoid any split in the ranks and is expected to endorse the face-saving report.
In Denmark, which votes on September 28th, the sanctions have been used by No campaigners as a potent symbol of Brussels bullying, ironically, despite the fact that EU institutions have not been involved.
The report gave a clean bill of health to the Austrian government's approach to human rights but criticised the Freedom Party for continuing to use language which gave rise to a tolerance of racism and xenophobia.
It was produced by the former Finnish president, Mr Martii Ahtisaari, who is also involved in the decommissioning process in Northern Ireland; Dr Jochen Frowein, director of the German Max Planck Institute and a former member of the European Commission on Human Rights, and Mr Marcelino Oreja, a former Spanish European commissioner.
The spokeswoman for Mr Ahern said that the Government welcomed the report which shared the Irish view that the continuation of sanctions would be counter-productive. Ireland had joined with a number of member states, most notably the Nordics, in seeking a way out of a seeming impasse on the issue.
Because the sanctions were imposed outside the framework of the Union in an unprecedented diplomatic demarche by the 14, no decision of an EU body will be required to lift them.
