War, Continued
Austria has signed onto the Strategic Compass, the EU’s plan of action for strengthening security and defense policy by 2030
Servus!
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has stalled. Ukrainian lines of defense are holding around the capital Kyiv and the second-largest city Kharkiv, while Russia’s advance from the south has also halted in the face of Ukrainian resistance. Russia has had more luck in the east, where forces have broken out of Donetsk and are on the move. Russian war crimes in Mariupol, including the forced deportation of civilians, are being documented; on Monday, Russian forces began an attack on the port city of Odesa in southwest Ukraine, home to the Ukrainian navy. The Biden administration fears Putin’s next move: the use of chemical or biological weapons.
More than 3.5 million Ukrainians have now been displaced by the war. More than 2 million refugees have crossed the border into Poland since the war’s beginning, while another 540,000 have entered Romania and 370,000 Moldova. On Monday, Austria’s interior ministry confirmed 14,500 Ukrainian refugees have registered in the country, a process that would grant them temporary protection for at least one year as well as access to the social security system and the labor market. About 43,000 refugees have entered Austria since the start of the war—over the weekend, 2,000 alone arrived from Moldova—though around 80 percent of them are transiting through, heading for Germany and Italy where there are large existing and established Ukrainian communities.
At home, the government has moved to alleviate the impact of rising energy and gas costs which are in part a product of the war. On Sunday, finance minister Magnus Brunner and energy minister Leonore Gewessler announced a 50 percent increase in the Pendlerpauschale, a tax allowance for the costs of commuting which gets bigger the further one lives from work and if public transport is not a viable option. It is a tax break that will cost the government an estimated €400 million, primarily benefit those on high incomes (the unions argue), and do nothing to discourage urban sprawl and promote environmentally-conscious town planning in a country where, every day, 32 acres of land are concreted over.
For those interested in supporting the effort to help Ukrainians displaced by war, the following Austrian or Austrian-backed organizations are accepting donations:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, leading the defense of his nation from Kyiv, has addressed both Houses of Congress, the German Bundestag, the Italian parliament, and the Israeli Knesset in an attempt to drum up support for his cause. To that end, the liberal NEOS party proposed inviting Zelenskyy to speak to the Austrian parliament, a move reportedly supported by the governing coalition, the People’s Party (ÖVP) and the Greens. The Social Democrats (SPÖ) and far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), however, are opposing Zelenskyy’s appearance via video conference, the former more cautiously than the latter, arguing the move would violate Austria’s constitutional ‘permanent neutrality.’
On Monday, European foreign and defense ministers met in Brussels in order to discuss the Ukraine crisis. Among the measures agreed was an additional €500 million in European funding for the delivery of weapons to Ukraine, taking the total spend on military aid to €1 billion since the war’s beginning. Owing to neutrality, Austrian ministers abstained on the measure. On March 1, in a meeting with Ukraine’s ambassador to Austria, Nehammer explicitly ruled out Austrian military aid for Ukraine in the form of weapons, though it has committed to delivering things like helmets, fuel, and so on.
Also green-lit Monday was the Strategic Compass, the EU’s plan of action for strengthening security and defense policy by 2030. Negotiations concerning the Strategic Compass predate the war, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU believes, “requires us to make a quantum leap forward and increase our capacity and willingness to act, strengthen our resilience, and invest more and better in our defense capabilities.” Among the measures agreed: the establishment of “a strong EU Rapid Deployment Capacity of up to 5000 troops for different types of crises.” Austrian forces will be part of his rapid response unit; the country’s neutrality, defense minister Klaudia Tanner said, is no obstacle here.
Bis bald!
My most recent article for the New Statesman is a deeper examination of Austrian neutrality. Austria “wears its neutrality like a comfortable yet tatty pair of shoes it finds hard to discard. Even if the war in Ukraine prompts Finland and Sweden to join Nato, there is little prospect of Austria doing the same. Giving up neutrality would require a fundamental re-conception of Austrian national identity for which the country is ill-prepared. The question, rather, is whether Austria can make something of being a neutral state at the heart of Europe once more.”
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Mask or Pass?
Businesses will soon have to choose between enforcing a mask mandate or the 3G rule as part of a planned change to COVID-19 measures. On March 15, 64,327 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in Austria, the most in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
On Your Bike
Vienna’s city government is to construct 17 new kilometers of bike lanes as part of a “mega cycle lane offensive,” the city’s transport secretary Ulli Sima announced Monday. Among the new projects are lanes that would create a direct and fast link between the United Nations and the city center.
Pay Up, Landlords
Responsibility for paying brokerage commissions will no longer automatically rest with tenants, justice minister Alma Zadić said Wednesday as she set out a planned change to the law. In Austria, brokerage fees often total the equivalent of two months’ rent.