Shortcomings in the judiciary

Is Austria still fit to join the EU?

Karoline Edtstadler and Alma Zadic disagree on the design of the Public Prosecutor General's Office

(Bild: APA/GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Anti-corruption expert Martin Kreutner has been criticized for claiming in a ZIB-2 interview that Austria is currently not ready to join the EU due to shortcomings in the judiciary. He calls for a federal prosecutor as a firewall. EU legal expert Walter Obwexer vehemently contradicts Kreutner. 

It was a statement that left even ORF anchorman Armin Wolf in the ZiB 2 studio somewhat speechless. Anti-corruption expert Martin Kreutner, who has headed the Pilnacek Commission for the past six months, made a bold claim: Austria would not be fit to join the EU. The reason: the construction sites in the judiciary. Above all, because there is still no Attorney General in Austria and the Minister of Justice is still at the end of the chain of command for public prosecutors, Austria would have no chance of membership. This assessment is remarkable given that Austria is in third place in the EU Justice Barometer, which is based on a survey.

The Pilancek Commission with Martin Kreutner in the middle

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

However, even legal experts cannot take much stock in Kreutner's opinion. First and foremost the EU legal expert Walter Obwexer. He is convinced that Austria is still fit for the EU. "The judicial system fulfills the values of the Union. Shortcomings in individual cases are not enough to call the justice system as a whole into question," Obwexer told the "Krone" newspaper. In order to minimize the criticized proximity between politics and the judiciary, a general prosecutor's office is to form the firewall against interventions in the future.

Zadic and Edtstadler argue aboutthe Attorney General 
 In principle, the ÖVP and the Greens are in agreement on this point. The only problem is the implementation. The ÖVP wants a federal public prosecutor who is controlled by parliament. Green Justice Minister Alma Zadic rejects this model. She prefers a three-member senate that monitors each other. Zadic does not consider a quality check by parliament to be necessary. Obwexer is critical of the Zadic model. "In the case of judges, there is no control by the state and that is good and right. The public prosecutor acts as a prosecutor for the state - hence the term public prosecutor. The sovereign should have a say here."

Another counter-argument: without control, three people get a lot of power, and power often corrupts. One thing is already certain: the Public Prosecutor General's Office will no longer be installed in this legislative period.