Austriacka tożsamość a wejście Republiki Austrii do Unii Europejskiej w świetle protokołu nr 10 do traktatu akcesyjnego z 1994 roku
Austrian identity and the accession of the Republic of Austria to the European Union in the light of Protocol No. 10 to the 1994 Accession Treaty

Summary/Abstract: Austrian national identity fundamentally emerged only in the twentieth century, particularly after the Second World War, although before its onset there were already some symptoms pointing to such a possibility. However, it was the shock of the war that ultimately led to a desire on the part of Austrians to emphasize their distinctiveness from Germany and this became manifest in several aspects. The hypothesis of the article is that through political measures including the status of permanent neutrality adopted by Austria in 1955, it became possible for this country to strengthen its national identity. Linguistic differences, marked by the Austrian variation of German, which is a polycentric language, only reinforced Austrian distinctiveness from Germany. Nowadays, the questioning of this specificity hardly ever takes place. The purpose of this paper is to point out the importance of, above all, linguistic distinctiveness as something that acquired particular significance in negotiations related to Austria’s accession to the European Union. Protocol No. 10 became an annex to the Treaty of Accession, which additionally emphasized Austria’s distinctiveness.

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