Austria moved into the driver's seat of the European Union on Sunday pledging to give it new momentum after what Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel called "a terrible year" that eroded public trust in the 25-nation bloc. As EU president for the next six months, Austria will aim mainly to help restore growth in western Europe, get a sceptical European Parliament to ratify the bloc's hard-won 2007-13 budget and try to salvage its moribund draft constitution, Reuters reported. The Alpine republic will also guide a decision on whether Romania and Bulgaria should join the EU in 2007 or later, and handle European Commission proposals to open accession talks with Croatia, a move it welcomes, and Turkey, one it does not. "We want to give Europe a new stimulus, to keep the idea of a common and diverse European continent alive," Schuessel said on his Web site to mark Austria's takeover of the rotating EU presidency from Britain. Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik spoke of providing "vitamins to lift Europe" and addressing problems "important in in the daily lives of Austrians and other Europeans", such as a slowdown in growth as the EU has expanded amid globalisation.
