BBC: Many Austrians are deeply suspicious of the EU, the BBC's Jonny Dymond reports, as he tours the continent ahead of next month's European elections.
Austria is a big central European paradox. Its language links it to Germany. Its culture links it to Italy. Its former empire links it to Hungary, the western Balkans, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is difficult to imagine a place more plugged into Europe.
And it is difficult to find anyone with a good word to say about the EU.
Down in the 10th district of Vienna the fast food joints rub shoulders with cheap jewellery stores and mobile phone shops. It's a working class area with a high immigrant population.
At an outside table in a cafe in a market, Horst Glasner and Hans Bubnik are settling into a fairly liquid lunch. As they drink white wine they bite into fat pickled cucumbers sold from a barrel at a stall a few metres away. Both men are retired.
Neither have anything but contempt for the EU.
"We have a bit of a problem with the whole thing," says Horst. "The problem is that the EU is not honest. They cheat on us a lot. This is the big problem."
"The problem is that everything has become more expensive," says Hans. "Since we joined the EU everything has been a third more expensive."
Horst finds another problem.
"Every country is in a different situation. The EU must look at the individual conditions. And this is the big problem." >>> Jonny Dymond | Friday, May 29, 2009
