Afghan clad-burqa women beg for alms during prayers in Kabul in Afghanistan | Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images Austria bans the burqa Prohibiting ‘anti-social symbols’ such as the veil will boost integration efforts, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz said.

Austria's grand coalition government will ban the full-face veil, Die Welt reported Tuesday.

The center-right Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) agreed late Monday on the government's reform plan, which focuses on job creation, economic growth and education, despite the prospect political in-fighting would prompt early elections.

The plan includes new security measures that will tighten controls on asylum seekers, though the SPÖ initially refused to back them, and an integration package spearheaded by Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, which calls for added funding for German language and integration classes and a burqa ban.

Prohibiting "anti-social symbols" such as the burqa will help Austria "better integrate those migrants who are allowed to stay," Kurz said in a video statement, adding he was glad the SPÖ had "finally" agreed to the deal.

France was the first European country to ban the burqa in public in 2010, followed by similar legislation in Belgium and Bulgaria. In the Netherlands, MPs have proposed a ban that does not completely outlaw the veil in public, but forbids it in certain situations for security reasons.