The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) agreed to resume coalition talks. This has been announced by SPÖ leader Alfred Gusenbauer and Wolfgang Schüssel, ÖVP Federal Party Chairman and Chancellor, in a joint statement on 17 November 2006. “We came to the conclusion that the talks should be resumed immediately”, stated Gusen-bauer. “In confidential meetings we have tried to break the deadlock and to create the conditions for resuming the negotiations about the formation of the new government”, stressed Schüssel. The talks of the main negotiation teams will start on 22 November 2006. The parties agreed to pursue a coordinated approach in Parliament.
Schüssel and Gusenbauer defined the programmatic priorities of the forthcoming negotiations in a joint paper. “Growth, full employment, stable government finances, safeguarding the quality of the health system, education, administrative reform and maintaining the excellent conditions of Austria as a business location“, Schüssel outlined some of the top items on the agenda. ■

13 November 2006 was the deadline for submitting binding bids for the trade union bank BAWAG P.S.K, which had been brought to the brink due to risky speculative deals of several billion euro. None of the binding bids of potential buyers came from Austria. Hence, the bank will definitely be sold to foreign investors.
According to the investment house Morgan Stanley, which had been entrusted by the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) with selling the bank, the three best bidders will be shortlisted. In accordance with international practices they will have to compete against one another in a last round. The responsible ÖGB bodies will select a buyer still before year-end. New partnerships are expected to emerge around the direct bidders.
The US fund Cerberus (together with Generali and Wüstenrot), the former BAWAG partner Bayerische Landesbank (BayernLB) and Lone Star are considered the most likely winners of the bidding for BAWAG. According to unofficial sources, other bids were filed by the international funds JC Flowers and Apollo as well as the large German insurer Allianz and its subsidiary Dresdner Bank.
The sale of BAWAG P.S.K. could not be avoided after the Caribbean speculation debacle and the Refco bankruptcy entailing losses of several billion euro. The annual financial statements for 2005 could be prepared only after the federal government had granted a guarantee of 900 million euro in May. In addition to paying the stock price, the buyer will have to make a binding commitment to endow the bank with the statutory equity after the state guarantee becomes void in June 2007. The highly indebted current owner ÖGB needs sales proceeds of significantly more than 2 billion euro to discharge its most pressing liabilities. ■

The pensions and salaries of civil servants will be increased next year. This was announced by Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel on 14 November 2006 after the Council of Ministers. The pension increase is significantly higher than originally planned. Apart from the previously promised 1.6% increase, the government agreed on a one-time payment of 40 euro. Thus individual pensions would increase by a total of 1.9%, explained Schüssel referring to the requests of interests group of senior citizens.
As fixed in the pension reform, all pensions below 1,920 euro will increase automatically by 1.6% in 2007. Pensions above this level will be raised by 30.72 euro per month. In addition, a one-time bonus of 40 euro will be transferred to the accounts of pensioners in February 2007. According to Schüssel, the additional costs amounted to 80 million euro. The total increase is 545 million euro. The Austrian Parliament will vote on this measure on 29 November 2006.
The Council of Ministers also approved the 2.35% salary increase for public-sector employees proposed one day earlier. Schüssel described this as an “acceptable agreement“ corresponding to the long-term range of wage increases in the metallurgical industry (2.6%). ■

Federal President Heinz Fischer paid an official visit to Luxembourg from 16 to 17 November 2006. The programme included talks with Grand Prince Henri of Luxembourg and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker as well as a visit to the European Court of Justice. Moreover, Fischer officially opened the exhibition “The epoch of Maria Theresa – masterpieces of Baroque“ with paintings and sculptures on loan from Österreichische Galerie Belvedere at the National Museum of History and Art (MNHA).
The meeting with Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn was short as the talks scheduled for the afternoon of 17 November 2006 had to be cancelled by Fischer due to the latest political developments in Austria. Fischer had to return earlier to Vienna to be briefed on the expected resumption of the coalition talks between the Social Democrats (SPÖ) and the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). ■

Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel received the Prime Minister of the Republic of Macedonia, Nikola Gruevski, on 7 November 2006. The talks, in which also Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik participated, focused on the European perspective of the Balkan state. Schüssel pledged his support for Macedonia’s rapprochement to the EU and welcomed “the readiness of the Macedonian government to embark on the indispensable preparations for the reform process”, said the Federal Chancellor.
It was understandable that it was necessary to do something to help Macedonia overcome the “feeling of being isolated”. Therefore, negotiation mandates for facilitating visa procedures with the Balkan states would soon be adopted, announced Schüssel and Plassnik. The visa agreements would be linked to repatriation agreements. The aim of these agreements is to make it easier for a selected groups of persons to obtain visas and to repatriate illegal immigrants.
Special attention should be paid to young people, emphasised Schüssel. They should be offered an opportunity to “experience Europe themselves” and to obtain the necessary education to be able “to support the advancement of their home country”.
On the eve of the presentation of progress reports on Turkey and the Western Balkan States by the European Commission Schüssel underlined “the prerequisites for a prudently and responsibly managed enlargement process of the European Union”. It was Austria that had consistently brought up the topic of the EU’s capacity of absorbing new members and that “now expected a sober analysis of this specific enlargement criterion”, explained Schüssel. ■

In a meeting with his Slovenian counterpart Janez Drnovsek in Vienna on 14 November 2006, Federal President Heinz Fischer praised the bilateral relations of the two states as “excellent”. The relations were governed by consensus and problems were “discussed on the basis of friendship and good neighbourly relations”, Fischer told journalists. Drnovsek had come to Vienna privately to present his philosophical book “Vom Wesen der Welt” (“The Essence of the World”) published in German at the Vienna Book Fair. ■

One month before the decisive EU summit on Turkey Austria called for a suspension of talks with Ankara for a breather. If Turkey did not make a “substantial move” in the Cyprus issue, “it could be wise to suspend talks to take a breather”, said Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik at the EU Council of Foreign Ministers in Brussels on 13 November 2006. The EU talks with Turkey had already “come to a de facto standstill”, said Plassnik. She sensed an “explicit non-willingness” of Turkey to implement the customs union with EU member Cyprus as well as to open its sea ports and airports.
Plassnik also criticised the wait-and-see attitude of the European Commission and requested recommendations still before the EU summit in mid-December where a decision would be taken on the definite or temporary suspension of accession talks with Turkey. ■

Based on recently published economic data, the growth rates in Europe are decreasing slightly, while Austria’s economic performance is still strong.
On 14 November 2006 the European Statistical Office Eurostat presented the data for the third quarter 2006 (compared to the previous quarter) showing a clear downward trend in Germany (0.6%), France (0.0), the Netherlands (0.6) and Italy (0.3) as well as a continuing strong GDP growth in Greece (2.1), Spain (0.9) and Austria (0.9). In a comparison of annual GDP growth rates Austria is currently ranked third in the EU with 3.3%. After a 0.9% increase in the second quarter, the economy in the 12 countries of the euro-zone grew merely by 0.5% in the third quarter. Compared to the third quarter of 2005, the euro-zone registered a growth of 2.6%. Economic growth is slowing down also in the EU-25: between July and September growth was 0.6% compared to 0.9% in the second quarter. ■

According to the plans of the Economic Chamber Austria (WKÖ), Austria should obtain at least 1 billion euro from the budget of more than 54 billion euro of the 7^th EU Framework Programme for Research within the next seven years. “While in the past about 85 million euro annually have flowed back to Austria, this figure is to increase to about 140 million euro in the future”, stressed Harald Kaszanits, head of the WKÖ Economic Policy Department, at the kick-off conference of the 7th EU Framework Programme for Research in Vienna on 8 November 2006. 40% of the amount is to go to companies. The share of enterprises benefiting from EU subsidies granted to Austria under the current 6^th Framework Programme was just below one quarter (22%), said Kaszanits. ■

“The Services Directive has developed from a symbol of the distance of the European Union to its citizens into a symbol of Europe’s new strength”, said Minister for Economic Affairs Martin Bartenstein on 15 November 2006, when the Services Directive was approved by the European Parliament.
The political agreement on the Services Directive of 29 May 2006 was one of the greatest achievements of the Austrian EU Presidency. The Directive now adopted by the European Parliament was not only a milestone in the process towards more growth and employment in Europe but also a key element of the Lisbon strategy, explained Bartenstein. After all, 70% of the value-added and more than two thirds of the jobs in the EU depended on the services sector.
The new rules will make it easier for service providers, e.g. heating engineers, tilers, computer services providers or management consultants, to become active in other EU Member States. To this end, a number of bureaucratic obstacles has to be removed. By excluding the originally planned country-of-origin principle, wage and social dumping is to be prevented. Sensitive areas such as health and social services (including nursing care), public transport, banking services, mail services, water supply and the collection of household refuse, have been excluded from the scope of the Directive. ■

After its stock market floatation in late May 2006, Österreichische Post has more than doubled its share price within less than six months. On 8 November 2006 the share price increased by more than 3% from the previous quotation to above 38 euro. The Austrian state holding company ÖIAG had listed the company on the stock exchange on 31 May 2006 for a price of 19 euro per share. ■

Through its German subsidiary WTE, the energy supplier EVN based in Lower Austria is building Moscow’s largest potable water plant. The plant that is also the “world’s largest ultrafiltration unit” was opened on 8 November 2006. The 190-million-euro project will supply about one million people in the Russian capital with potable water. ■

Applications for participation in the new EU Framework Programme “Culture 2007-2013“ can now be submitted. The new EU culture programme succeeds to “Culture 2000“ and has been endowed with a budget of 400 million euro. “During the Austrian EU Presidency we managed to adopt a new EU programme supporting cultural actions with a term of seven years and an increased budget. This had been crucial as the continuity of the cultural programmes had to be ensured to guarantee cooperation in Europe in the interest of cultural creators”, stressed Secretary of State for Art and Media Franz Morak on 10 November 2006. Applications regarding cooperation measures, multi-annual cooperation projects and literary translations can be submitted in the framework of this new programme. In line with its objectives, special emphasis will be placed on interdisciplinary projects in 2007. Projects of all cultural sectors with a European value-added will be eligible for support. The deadline for the submission of applications is 28 February 2007. For 136 projects and 45 literary translation projects a total of 29 million euro will be available in 2007. Public or private cultural organisations from the Member States of the European Union, Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, the candidate countries and the Western Balkan States are admitted to participate provided that they meet the requirements. Projects promoting the dialogue between cultures will be prioritised in view of the “European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008”. ■

On the occasion of awarding the Austrian Cross for Services Rendered to Science and the Arts to film producer Otto Pammer on 14 November 2006, Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel stated that Pammer was one of the doyens of the Austrian film world. As an educator of the people he had built “bridges between high culture and the so-called mass culture“. “Based on his documentaries, the world learned about Austria after World War II. His reports shaped knowledge about post-war reconstruction, the economic miracle and the revival of culture in our country”, stated the Federal Chancellor about Pammer’s oeuvre spanning several decades. The film producer born in Vienna in 1926 captured important events on film, e.g. the signing of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955.
Otto Pammer’s about 24,000 reports are the nucleus of the Austrian memory. Schüssel described “Seitenblicke” – a short prime-time celebrity TV programme produced by Pammer-Film (founded in 1974) for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) – as a creative contribution to cultural news reporting.
Otto Pammer had started his career with Wien-Film. In 1950 he had worked for “Fox tönende Wochenschau“ (a German newsreel series) and soon became the head of the company’s Austria department. His images of the Hungarian revolution in 1956 brought a wave of sympathy for the freedom fighters in the West and mobilised wide support for the refugees. ■

The Austrian Book Week was opened in Vienna’s town hall on 13 November 2006. In the presence of Secretary of State for Art and Media Franz Morak, German publisher Klaus Wagenbach received the “Prize of honour of the Austrian book trade for tolerance in thought and action”. In her laudatory speech Sigrid Löffler, the responsible editor of the monthly journal “Literaturen” published in Berlin, pointed out that Wagenbach was only the second non-Austrian (after Peter Ustinov) to receive this prize and stated that the way the Wagenbach publishing house practised tolerance filled her with admiration. City Councillor for Culture Andreas Mailath-Pokorny said that Wagenbach was a central representative of a counter-public. Morak stressed that the Book Week was generally of great importance, presenting 149 Austrian, German and Swiss publishers. The books exhibited can be bought in 13 book shops. With 114 events, notably readings, encounters with book authors and numerous offers for children, the 59th Book Week offers a more varied programme than ever.
On 14 November 2006 Vienna’s mayor Michael Häupl opened the “book tower” at the literary café consisting of copies of the German version of Toni Morrison’s debut novel (“Sehr blaue Augen“/”The Bluest Eyes”). The City of Vienna is distributing 100,000 free copies of this book. The US Nobel Prize Laureate (1993), whose novel “Beloved“ has recently been selected by the New York Times as the most important novel of the past 25 years, was a guest of the Book Week in Vienna on 19 November 2006. “The Bluest Eyes“ tells the story of a black girl in the 1940s in the USA, who believes that she would be loved by her parents and fellow human beings if she had blue eyes. It addresses a topic that has been hotly discussed in Vienna for years: the rights and feelings of minorities. ■

From 6 December 2006 to 18 March 2007 the Jewish Museum Vienna will show a fascinating solo exhibition about Felix Salten (1869-1945), who was born in the former Austrian empire. He was successful as a journalist, author but also scriptwriter and created very contradictory works like the sexless “Bambi“. Salten was also the anonymous author of the pornographic novel “Josefine Mutzenbacher“, which is considered the only classic of this genre in German language (Urs Widmer).
The author’s life is largely unknown. But his entire work is linked in an exemplary way to important themes of the Austrian and Jewish history, i.e. the question of Jewish identity between liberal assimilation, cultural modernisation and Zionism. The show curated by Siegfried Mattl and Werner Michael Schwarz makes cross-references to subjects like eroticism, urban culture, Zionism and physiognomy as knowledge. The documentation is illustrated with private photos, stills from Salten’s films, letters of Salten to Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Arthur Schnitzler as well as paintings, costumes and posters. ■

Until 13 January 2007 André Heller’s show “Afrika! Afrika!“ can be seen in the tent city erected on Vienna’s fairgrounds. In Germany the show had enthused more than 600,000 visitors. “Afrika! Afrika!” is not only a magnificent spectacle with pyramids of people from Gabon and Tanzania, with seemingly boneless “body eccentricity” by Huit Huit from Angola, with dancers from Senegal, Guinea, the Ivory Coast and South Africa but also a unique humanitarian project. Each individual acrobat appearing in the show can maintain at least 60 people in his/her home country with the income earned in the show. Moreover, one euro of every ticket sold is spent on the promotion of African cultural projects (in cooperation with UNESCO and the Goethe Institute). To this end, “Art in Africa“, the foundation for the cultures of Africa of the German UNESCO Commission, was established. Its aim is to provide long-term support for the efforts of African people to win international renown with their cultural identities and visions for the future. “Afrika! Afrika!“ is under the aegis of UNESCO in Paris. Doudou Diène, the Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on contemporary forms of racism, xenophobia and related intolerance, announced his sympathy for the show already in the preparatory phase and supported the project with his expert advice. ■

Friedrich Cerha, Austrian composer of the avant-garde, conceived his cycle for orchestra “Spiegel” consisting of seven parts in 1960/61, when he was 35 years old. In a performance given at Vienna Konzerthaus in the framework of the Wien Modern festival on 6 November 2006, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg led by Sylvain Cambreling impressively demonstrated that “Spiegel“ is one of the main works of 20^th-century music. The absorbed audience was offered a monumental sound experience, after which the 80-year-old composer – who had received the “Golden Lion” at the Venice Biennale for his lifetime oeuvre – was celebrated. Cerha’s sound cosmos takes us on a journey through the 20^th century: All his hopes but also the horrors witnessed by him have been processed in his music. Associative sound structures continuously pushing ahead create a monumental soundscape stimulating both the emotions and intellect of the listeners.
It is highly impressive how the composer builds up bombastic sound thunderstorms out of complete silence and then returns again to silence. The unique sound experience was recorded by the Austrian radio station Ö1. ■

In the framework of the Mozart Festival “New Crowned Hope“ conceived by Peter Sellars, the opera “A Flowering Tree“ of US composer John Adams received its world premiere on 14 November 2006 at MuseumsQuartier in Vienna. The opera had been initiated by Sellars, who wrote the libretto together with Adams. The music was performed by a youth orchestra, and a choir from Venezuela was singing the new work. The opera is based on an ancient folktale from India. A girl born into the working class is transformed into a flowering tree for a short time. Wanting to help her mother, she sells the flowers of the tree together with her sister. A prince falls in love with the girl returned to her human form. It is a story about love, jealousy and moral purification, ending with the love rediscovered – a theme similar to Mozart’s “Magic Flute“. The critics praised the three Indonesian dancers enacting the story in their body language as well as the singers Jessica Rivera as the girl Kumudha, Russel Thomas as the prince and Eric Owens (bass) as the storyteller. The opera – a mixture of Bollywood, Indonesian dance and contemporary American sound – is expected to triumph internationally. It will soon be performed in New York. ■

On 14 November 2006 mobilkom austria celebrated its 10th anniversary with a big party at Vienna’s Burgtheater to which about 1000 guests and friends of the enterprise from the economic, political and cultural arena were invited. Vice-Chancellor Hubert Gorbach, Minister for Agriculture Josef Pröll, Minister for Health Maria Rauch-Kallat, party chief of the Social Democrats (SPÖ) Alfred Gusenbauer and Siemens Austria boss Brigitte Ederer listened to the speech delivered by “Live 8“ initiator Bob Geldof, who is firmly committed to combating social injustice in the Third World. In 1984 Sir Bob Geldorf had raised over 11 million euro for the Ethiopian famine fund with his charity band project “Band Aid“. The “Live Aid“ concert in July 1985 starring U2, Queen, The Who and Tina Turner attracted an audience of more than 1.5 billion people and raised more than 120 million dollars. In the preliminaries of the G8 summit in 2005, Geldof organised “Live 8“ concerts that were simultaneously held in eleven cities on four continents. More than 3 billion people watched the performance of 170 artists, from Pink Floyd to Robbie Williams. ■

On 15 November 2006 the Austrian art sponsorship prize “Maecenas 2006“ had been awarded at Hotel Imperial in Vienna. The award was granted in different categories by the independent economic committee “Initiativen Wirtschaft für Kunst“ (IWK) together with the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF). This year 143 enterprises had participated in the competition with 172 projects. The best “newcomer” was Graz-Köflacher Bahn und Busbetrieb GmbH (GKB) with a project in which Austrian artists such as Erwin Wurm and Eva Schlegel develop creative designs for train stations and train cars in Styria. In the category “best project of small and medium-sized companies” Bankhaus Krentschker convinced the jury with its support for “Alte Galerie” at the regional museum “Joanneum”. The largest number of project entries was received in the category “best art sponsoring concept”. The winner is the insurance company “Wiener Städtische Versicherung” with the concept for the Mozart Year 2006 comprising several (inter)national projects as well as the wrapping of Ringturm in an “Don Giovanni“ painting, making it the most monumental painting of all times. With the support of Wiener Städtische a Mozart film festival was shown in several different Eastern European cities based on the concept of the film festival staged every year on the square in front of Vienna’s town hall. The prize in the category “art and media” went to mobilkom austria AG for supporting the exhibition “M City – European Cityscapes” at Kunsthaus Graz. ■

On invitation by the Federal Chancellery and with Heinz Palme, the Austrian federal government’s European Championship co-ordinator in the chair, interesting facts about the 2006 World Cup in Germany were discussed at “Haus des Sports” in Vienna during two days. The aim of the workshop was the optimal organisation of EURO 2008 in Austria and Switzerland. “The federal government has invested a lot of money in the construction of stadiums to create excellent conditions for EURO 2008. With the aid and support of those responsible, the EURO 2008 will become a national concern and hence a success in organisational and athletic terms”, emphasised Secretary of State for Sport Karl Schweitzer in his opening statement. The Republic of Austria does not only support the project “Challenge 2008“ (promoting young talents in the period 2003 to 2008) with about 2.7 million euro from the federal sport promotion scheme. About 62 million euro are allocated to covering the costs of building and enlarging stadiums for EURO 2008. About 120 participants formed six working groups discussing organisation, transport, host cities, security, communication and tourism. The experience of the finals in 2006 will be used for EURO 2008. Experts of the German World Cup organisation committee, the German National Tourist Board (Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus) as well as the host cities Kaiserslautern and Stuttgart shared their experience with the Federal Ministry of the Interior. In addition, numerous representatives of the European championship host countries Austria and Switzerland participated in the event. “In the statements the euphoria of the World Cup 2006 could be felt once more. Now preparations have to be intensified to ensure that Austria and Switzerland will experience a similarly spectacular tournament in 2008, said Palme. ■

At the annual Sport Cristall Gala held in Studio 44 of the Lotteries of the Austrian Federal Sports Organisation and the Federal Chancellery people were in the limelight who are usually in the background. At this gala awards are con-ferred on associations, trainers, officials – the “silent heroes” in the background. About 500,000 people sacrifice annually 1.5 million hours of their valuable time for sport – value-added worth several billion euro – and a prize. Those selected receive crystal trophies (“Cristalle”) for their outstanding achievements in Austrian sport and on behalf of all those whose devotion to sport makes possible the quality and quantity of sports in Austria. Austria’s most desirable sports awards have been granted in four categories also this year. Liese Prokop was selected as the “top official 2006“, not only for her efforts devoted to sport in Austria but also for her achievements at international level as the organiser of the inter-national sports conference “Good Governance in Sport“. “Top Official 2006” Werner Schwarz is also a representative of Sportunion. He earned a reputation as an expert in many areas of sport. Another guarantor of success in sport became “Top Trainer of the Year 2006“: Günther Chromecek, who as the ÖSV (Austrian Skiing Association) chief trainer has guaranteed top international results to the Nordic combiners. The title “Top Association of the Year 2006“ went to SK VÖEST. This sports association is famed for innovative ideas. It does not only cater for the needs of top-level athletes but also those of about 7,000 members. Besides the wide range of sports facilities, the varied programme pro-moting health sports was decisive for success. ■

The Sports Experts Council of the Austrian Federal Sports Organisation approved the admission of the Austrian Competition Climbing Association (Österreichischer Wettkletter-verband /ÖWK) at the Annual General Meeting. Like the other 56 special sports associations, the climbers now have access to the funds of the federal sports promotion scheme. ■