On January 1st, 1995 Austria joined the European Union and became one of the then 15 EU member countries. This was preceded by a referendum on June 12th, 1994, in which 66.6 percent of the Austrians voted in favour of becoming a member of the EU. The turnout was 82.3 percent.
Support for EU membership has remained consistently high among the Austrian people: According to a study conducted by the Austrian Society for European Politics in September 2019 74 percent of the Austrians approved of the EU membership. Since 1995 approval has always been around 70 percent – despite some fluctuations.
Over the past 25 years not only Austria but also the EU has developed considerably: it has grown to 27 member countries and is now closely intertwined politically and economically.
The current Covid 19 pandemic poses major challenges for Europe. With NextGenerationEU the European Commission presented its proposals for a recovery programme and a revised EU budget for 2021-2027 in May 2020.
The name says it all: NextGenerationEU combines recovery aid with answers to important questions about the future. The common investments are intended to ensure that the EU successfully finds its way out of the crisis and becomes climate-neutral, digital, socially healthy and a strong, competitive global player in the future.
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