ABSTRACT
On 1 January 1995, Austria and Sweden acceded to the European Union (EU).1 Historically, membership had been rejected in both countries for two main reasons. First, a majority of forces in Austria and Sweden agreed that their neutral status excluded the possibility of membership in a supranational economic organisation such as the EU as it would imply a loss of national sovereignty and possible participation in measures such as onesided embargoes of weapon exports and, thus, undermine neutrality (Huldt 1994:111; Neuhold 1992:89). Second, the domination of the EU by Christian democratic parties and big capital appeared to imply a threat to the social democratic achievements in both countries. The greater part of Austria’s heavy industry had been nationalised after the Second World War, mainly in order to protect it against reparation demands by the occupying allies. For much of the Austrian Social Democratic Party (SPO), however, nationalisation was also a precondition for the achievement of full employment and the maintenance of state authority over the economy. ‘Rightly, the Socialists argued that the contribution of the state-owned sector in economic stabilization, full employment, and regional development would be menaced if Austria were forced to accept supranational direction from Christian Democratic governments’ (Kurzer 1993:207).
