A recent European Union ruling which cleared France violating human rights by banning full face veils has encouraged Spain's Catalonia region to push ahead with its own burqa ban.

Citing "public safety" as a reason to push forward the ban, the Catalan government, which plans to hold an independence referendum later this year, announced its plans to control the wearing of burqas and other face-covering attire in public spaces in 2013, worldbulletin.net reported.

The move would also see helmets and masks banned, Ramon Espadaler, the former Interior Minister for Catalonia said.

On Thursday Spain's Cuatro TV channel reported that Espadaler said the process to ban the burqa would commence after summer.

A wave of proposed burqa bans have been sweeping Europe since the Strasbourg court ruled in France's favor last week, prompting similar efforts in Norway and Austria.

However, on Thursday Austria's young 28-year-old Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz criticized efforts to ban the burqa, saying that it was creating an artificial debate.

"With a ban on the burqa, we will not solve the problem of integration in Austria," Kurz said, according to The Local, calling for more work to be done on integration projects instead.

MG