On 14 September 2006 Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik looked back on the past legislative period and described the “reunification of Europe” as the most important European policy issue. Austria was one of the main beneficiaries of the EU enlargement round of 1 May 2004, as a result of which Austria moved from the “periphery to the centre of the continent”, stressed Schüssel.
Exports to Central and Eastern Europe had increased almost tenfold (to more than 11 billion euro) since 1995, and the volume of foreign investments had recorded a similar surge. “This is the first year we will break through the sonic barrier of 100 billion euro“, stated the Federal Chancellor. This development safeguarded thousands of jobs and considerably strengthened Austria’s position as a business location.
Today Europe was a “project of peace and opportunities”, in which regional blocs and interest groups fulfilled important functions – among them the Regional Partnership in Central and South Eastern Europe initiated by Austria, in which the country played a “leading role as a reliable partner with an attitude of solidarity”, said Schüssel.
However, European policy stood also for youth and future policy. It was an ambitious national goal in the EU-wide combat against youth unemployment to offer young people in Austria a training position or a new job within three months, stated the Federal Chancellor.
Moreover, Schüssel highlighted that EU subsidies provided maximum support, e.g. for the Brenner base tunnel, biological agriculture and research. Austria ranked first in biological agriculture in Europe. It was also leading in the production of renewable energies; their share of currently 22% is expected to double to 4% by 2020. In the field of research Austria had benefited from EU financial support of 114% in the recent past, which had made it a net recipient.
In addition, Austria was the only EU Member State that achieved an increase in funding for rural areas in the budget negotiations. “Until 2013 8 billion euro will be made available for agriculture, cultural programmes, environmental protection or programmes ensuring the local supply of the population“, stated the Chancellor.
Foreign Minister Plassnik informed that Austria attached great importance to the stabilisation of the Balkans. It was crucial to provide the countries of this region with a European perspective. Stability in the Balkans also meant more security for Austria. “Without Austria’s firm commitment, the European perspective for the Balkans would have been abandoned long ago”, said Plassnik. ■

Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel opened the exhibition “Austria in Europe” at the Federal Chancellery on 19 September 2006. More than 40 selected exhibits from politics, economics, literature and music are on show.
“Austria is a country of talents. The exhibition shows the unique diversity of inventions, works and documents that have left a distinguishing mark on Austria’s history”, said the Chancellor.
“Austria in Europe“ was shown in Brussels during the Austrian EU Presidency to highlight the close ties and inspiring exchange between Austria and Europe. Due to the great public interest, the exhibition can now also be visited at the Federal Chancellery up to the Austrian national holiday on 26 October 2006. Admission is free. Among the exhibits is the “Tabula Peutingeriana“, a medieval copy of the only preserved road map of the Roman empire. Other highlights are the model of the ship’s propeller invented by Joseph Ressel, the final document of the Vienna Congress (1815), the original of the Christmas carol “Silent Night” and the first edition of Elfriede Jelinek’s novel “The Piano Teacher“. ■

In the presence of Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, Vice-Chancellor Hubert Gorbach and Minister of Education Elisabeth Gehrer, the “House of Research” was opened in Vienna on 18 September 2006. It will serve as a “one-stop shop” for all issues related to research and research promotion. Schüssel stressed that the research and development expenditure ratio would be raised from 2.43% to 3% of the GDP by 2010. ■

At this year’s UN General Assembly in New York (19 to 27 Sep¬tember 2006) Austria was represented by Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik. She held numerous bilateral talks on the margins of the UN General Assembly, e.g. with her counterparts from Iran, Syria and Turkey. At EU level meetings were held with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as well as Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Plassnik and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier pled emphatically for a speedy revival of the Middle East peace process. They also requested to give fresh impetus to the so-called Middle East Quartet (EU, UNO, USA and Russia). Plassnik explained that the Middle East Quartet was the most important element of the coordination process. She stated to be very pleased about the cooperation between the EU and the United Nations, which has never been closer than today. The Austrian EU Presidency had contributed greatly to realising reforms in the international organisation, stressed the Foreign Minister. With regard to the Iran issue, Plassnik stated that Teheran had to be motivated to actively engage in confidence building so as to create the prerequisites for a solution-oriented dialogue. The Foreign Minister underlined that it was a positive fact that the EU and Iran had re-entered into a human rights dialogue. This had been a major concern of the Austrian EU Presidency in the first half of 2006.
Plassnik called on Turkey to show “realism and a clear European engagement” regarding Cyprus and to carry out political reforms in the field of freedom of religion and speech.
In her statement to the UN General Assembly on 21 September 2006 Plassnik proposed to convene a Middle East conference and to establish a regional security structure.
The Foreign Minister appealed to Belgrade and Pristina to participate “in a realistic and result-oriented way” in the negotiations on the future status of Kosovo. The Balkan states had to be involved in the reunification of Europe. In particular a fully integrated, “peaceful and wealthy Serbia” was of vital importance for the stability of the entire region, said Plassnik.
Departing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan was praised by the Foreign Minister as a “helmsman of the UN“ and an “untiring encourager“, who had always raised his voice to defend the weak, the poor, the small and “those thought lost”.
Plassnik confirmed to journalists that Austria was trying to obtain a temporary seat on the UN Security Council in about two years. The Foreign Minister showed herself optimistic: “Austria is known as a reliable, firmly committed partner of the United Nations.“ ■

At the opening of the 50th session of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on 18 September 2006, Federal President Heinz Fischer urged that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons had to be complied with “to the letter” and advocated “maximum transparency in this sensitive area”. Alluding to the nuclear issue with Iran, the Federal President described the danger of the proliferation of nuclear weapons as “one of the great challenges to the international community”. The IAEA should be given all the information and inspection possibilities it requests.
Foreign Minister Plassnik underlined the significance of globally harmonised nuclear safety standards. To this end, the IAEA had to be vested with the necessary authority. ■

A meeting of foreign ministers of the Regional Partnership took place in Vienna on 14 September 2006. Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik welcomed her counterparts from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia as well as the Under Secretary of State of the Polish Foreign Ministry.
All participants pledged their support for bringing the Ukraine and the states of the Western Balkans closer to Europe. Particularly Serbia had to be given a European and Transatlantic perspective “now”.■

“The fact that this is the first time in history that we have more direct investments abroad than foreign direct investments in Austria is a huge success, which we also owe to industry and which lends strength to Austria”, stressed Chancellor Schüssel at a 60th anniversary celebration of the Austrian Federation of Industrialists (IV) on 14 September 2006. Currently about 1,000 internationally active holding companies did business in Central and Eastern Europe through their representations in Austria. This was an enormous locational advantage. Austria was successful because it took advantage of the “wealth of opportunities”, stated Schüssel.
With the EU accession of Romania and Bulgaria on 1 January 2007, the Danube would become almost entirely an EU river from the source to the mouth in the Black Sea. Austria had a historic opportunity to assume a central position and to move from the periphery to the heart of Europe. Austria boasted a strong economic performance. Its export volume had surpassed that of Switzerland. In 2006 it was expected to amount to 100 billion euro. Economic growth was estimated at 3%. The success was owed also to industry, “which made considerable investments and paid wages totalling 100 billion euro. This stimulated consumption and created future investments”, emphasised Schüssel. ■

Austria receives more than 3.9 billion euro for 2007 to 2013 from Brussels. This means that significantly more funds are available for modernisation, diversification and a stronger focus on environmental issues than in the previous budget period (3.3 billion euro). The European Commission adopted a resolution on the distribution of aid for rural development on 12 September 2006. With 13.2 billion euro, Poland is the leader, followed by Italy and Germany (both about 8 billion euro) as well as France (6.4 billion euro).
Austria has been most successful in fighting against the planned cuts in the agriculture budget in the negotiations about the new EU budget. ■

The Austrian National Bank (OeNB) has significantly increased its growth forecast for the domestic economy in 2006. It now expects the gross domestic product (GDP) to grow by 3.2%. In June the OeNB experts had forecast an economic growth of only 2.5%. According to the National Bank, the main reasons for the economic upswing were dynamic exports and substantial company investments. ■

“OPEC is an important and valuable partner of Austria, it has had its headquarters in Vienna for 40 years and has become an integral part of this city”, said Minister for Economic Affairs Martin Bartenstein, who participated in the 3rd OPEC International Seminar on 12 September 2006. Hosting the headquarters of OPEC, IAEA (the International Atomic Energy Agency) as well as the Secretariat of the Energy Community for South Eastern Europe, Vienna had become the “Energy capital of Europe”. Bartenstein mentioned higher energy efficiency, climate protection and the expansion of renewable energies as the priorities of the EU’s future energy policy. ■

Currently 112 domestic enterprises with a market value of 124 billion euro and a great impact on the national economy are listed at Vienna Stock Exchange. According to a new study of the Institute for Industrial Research (Industrie-wissenschaftliches Institut/IWI), the groups reviewed generate 12.8% (53.2 billion euro) of the gross output and 11.2% (23.8 billion euro) of the total value added in Austria. Moreover, they safeguard – directly and indirectly – about 306,300 jobs, corresponding to 7.4 % of all employed persons. The domestic listed companies were thus an important factor for the business location Austria, stressed Hellmut Longin, President of Aktienforum, which had commissioned the study. ■

The Republic of Austria has recently granted a high distinction to two intellectuals who have been untiring in their efforts to enhance the Israeli-Austrian relations.

Gideon Eckhaus was awarded the Cross of Honour for Science and Art on 12 September 2006. According to Secretary of State for Art and Media Franz Morak, Eckhaus had advocated a better understanding between Israel and Austria “even in politically difficult times and in all the leading positions he occupied, e.g. as the Chairman of the Central Committee of Jews from Austria in Israel, the Chairman of the Israel-Austria Friendship Society in Tel Aviv and the Chairman of the Club of Austrian Pensioners”. For many years Eckhaus had represented “the interests of those Austrians who had lost their native country during the Holocaust and found a new home in Israel vis-à-vis our country. He had always been committed to constructive negotiations, sought consensus and fought for a settlement in the interest of those represented by him. Morak highlighted the role Gideon Eckhaus had played in establishing the National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism in 1995. He also hailed Eckhaus’ speech delivered at the commemorative session of the Austrian Parliament held on the occasion of the Fund’s tenth anniversary in May 2005.

The former editor-in-chief of “Jerusalem Post“, one of Israel’s internationally most important newspapers published in English language, Ari Rath, was awarded the professional title “Professor” on 13 September 2006. Ari Rath was born in Vienna and had to flee from the Nazis in a children’s transport to Palestine in 1938. In Israel he made a brilliant career as a journalist. Morak praised Rath as an “elder statesman“ of journalism in Israel. In the late 1980s and 1990s, when the bilateral relations between Israel and Austria were characterised by tensions, he had greatly contributed to a relaxation as a counsellor behind the scenes. “He helped Austria in arriving at a new approach – as far as its relationship to the Shoa is concerned. Austria recalled its responsibility for what had happened from 1938 to 1945“. Secretary of State Morak concluded his statement by emphasising that in recent years Ari Rath had intensified the contacts to his former home country and reminded of the noted speech of Rath, which he gave at the recent opening of the Bruckner Festival 2006. ■

The new, brilliant DVD edition “Der Öster-reichische Film“ (“The Austrian Film”) – published under the label ”Edition Der Standard“ – comprises 50 examples of Austrian film-making. Modelled on the successful edition of “Süddeutsche Cinemathek“, the Austrian daily “Der Standard” produced the edition, which will be published in two series of 25 films on 14 October and 17 November 2006. The first film is free for orders received by 10 October 2006. Texts by filmmakers, authors, artists and critics accompany and complement the individual films of the series. Starting on 21 September 2006, every day a new title of the edition will be presented on the Internet under “derStandard.at/oe-film”. Together with Ernst Kieninger of Film Archives Austria, Georg Hoanzl compiled a complex potpourri of recent and older feature, documentary and short films. All prominent names of the Austrian cinema are represented, e.g. Barbara Albert, Ruth Becker-mann, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Axel Corti, Michael Glawogger, Michael Haneke, Paul Harather, André Heller, Othmar Schmiderer, Fritz Lehner, Wolfgang Murnberger, Hubert Sauper, Ulrich Seidl, Harald Sicheritz, Xaver Schwarzenberger. Morak hailed the project for arousing “interest in fifty positions, attitudes and approaches to film”. The Federal Chancellery subsidises the project with 60,000 euro, and the Austrian Film Institute will also grant financial aid. ■

The State Prize and the category prizes for Multimedia & E-Business 2006 of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour (BMWA) were conferred on the winners at a festive event in the Mozart Hall of Vienna Konzerthaus on 19 September 2006. The production team of filmmaker Virgil Widrich of checkpointmedia Multimediaproduktionen AG triumphed. It was awarded the Multimedia & E-Business State Prize 2006 by Federal Minister Josef Pröll for the multimedia installation at Mozarthaus Vienna, which the jury had described as outstanding. According to the jury, the multimedia installation convinced through its clear conception, diversity and the high level of information conveyed to the onlooker. The central installation was a multimedia tribute to Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute”. In its proscenium opening an oversized model theatre shows a three-dimensional set with collages of scenes from productions of the Magic Flute from 1791 to the present day.
“The winning project is a future-oriented solution demonstrating how multimedia concepts can be expanded in a meaningful way, said Peter A. Bruck, the officer responsible for the Multimedia & E-Business State Prize of the BMWA. The recent past has been marked by important developments in this field, e.g. the breakthrough of the Internet, which succeeded to the CD-ROM; now the focus was on content and direct interaction.
With its “Visitor Centre Parliament Austria”, checkpointmedia scored another success in the category “Public Information and Services. The project received the jury’s acclaim for providing simple, interactive access and explaining complex subjects like politics and democracy to a large audience.
Since 2001 checkpointmedia has also been responsible for multimedia installations such as the Red Bull Hangar-7 or Swarovski Crystal World. ■

Kulturkontakt Austria (KKA) – a competence centre in the field of culture – has promoted the dialogue on culture between Austria and the countries of Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe since 1992. On September 2006 Managing Director Kurt Wagner and Secretary of State for Art and Media Franz Morak presented the programme for the next season. By focusing attention on ten countries, the programme is to be streamlined. Fewer but larger projects are to raise awareness in the media. Morak stated that it was a task of cultural policy to be present in the South Eastern European countries alongside different banks and oil groups. Kulturkontakt Austria had made a “substantial contribution to enhancing the visibility of the arts of our neighbouring countries”. Persistent efforts to come closer to our neighbours would continue to be a declared goal of KKA also in the future. South and South Eastern Europe were a key resource for Austria. Since the beginning of the programme in 1992 KKA has received applications from 4,300 artists wishing to participate in an artist-in-residence programme. Every year twelve artists were selected; in total 169 artists from 23 countries were guests. The Federal Chancellery, which has supported KKA from the very beginning, has made available a total of 1.4 million euro since 1992 just for the artist-in-residence programme. A survey of the works of the artists invited in 2005 is offered in the exhibition “One year after” at “Tresor” – the exhibition space of BA-CA Kunstforum dedicated to young art – opening on 17 October 2006. Another priority of the institution is the promotion of literature. Since 1990 more than 2,100 projects have been supported, among them translations of Austrian literature of the 20th century into Eastern European languages. This autumn the translation of new Eastern and South Eastern European literature into German will be added to the purview of KKA. The “Great Prize for Eastern European literature” is awarded for the first time. It will be conferred on Theodora Dimova (Bulgaria) at the Frankfurt Book Fair on 4 October 2006. In the future the prize will be granted every second year. Other key events are the Ukrainian Cultural Days in October, the programme focusing on Romania and Bulgaria, the cycle “Towards the South East – exploring unknown countries” as well as a festival marking the fifth anniversary of “Dancers in Residence“, which is organised in cooperation with Wiener Tanzquartier. The “Literature Ship Europe” travelling from Passau to the Black Sea in May and June will be another highlight in 2007. ■

A working programme for cooperation in the fields of science, teaching and culture was signed by the State Secretary for Public Diplomacy of the Romanian Foreign Ministry, Valentin Naumescu, and the head of the Department of Cultural Policy of the Austrian Foreign Ministry, Emil Brix, in Vienna on 20 September 2006. The aim is to ensure that the relations of the two signatory states will continue to develop favourably. The new working programme (running until 2009) governs cooperation in the fields of universities, adult education and advanced teacher training, culture and art, multilateral cooperation as well as youth and sport. Great importance was also attached to exchanges of lecturers and experts. The Austrian Cultural Forum in Bucharest, the Institut Cultural Român and the Culture Department of the Romanian Embassy in Vienna play a major role in implementing this bilateral cooperation programme. The recently signed working programme is a further step to intensify cooperation between the future EU Member State Romania and Austria. In 2007 the title “European Capital of Culture 2007” will be granted to Sibiu/Hermannstadt. Austria will take advantage of this occasion to present itself with a number of first-rate cultural events. ■

Vienna will for the first time host an art biennial festival. The first “Viennabiennale“ (ending on 10 October 2006) presents international contemporary art by 80 artistic creators – among them 33 from Austria – at about forty venues. With a small budget, the young team plans to establish a “contemporary network” within the existing art scene. Established galleries, which coordinated their programme with “Vienna-biennale“, artists’ studios, cultural institutes as well as locations where art is unexpected, such as doctors’ practices or the premises of Webster University, participate in the project. The outer districts of Vienna also join in the festival, e.g. “Kunsthalle in Meidling“. Artists from Austria represented in the festival are Peter Kogler, Fatima Bornemissza, Beatrix Dreux, Florian Hecker, Gina Müller, photographer Markus Krottendorfer and others. Among the international participants are Erik Binder (Slovakia) and Kamen Stojanov (Bulgaria). Branko Suhy (Slovenia), to whom the Museum of Art History (KHM) currently dedicates an exhibition at Vienna’s Theseus Temple, is one of the artists in the limelight of Viennabiennale. ■

Psychiatrist Leo Navratil, the founder of the “Center for Art Psychotherapy” in Maria Gugging (Lower Austria) – later known as “House of the Artists” – died aged 85 in a hospital in Vienna on 18 September 2006. In the late 1950s Navratil had requested the patients of the Regional Mental Hospital Maria Gugging to make drawings. In 1965 he published his first book on art and schizophrenia based on the experience with artistic patients (“Kunst und Schizophrenie“). In 1981 Navratil founded the “Art and Psychotherapy Centre”, which served as a residence, studio and communication centre for his creative patients. In 1986 Johann Freilacher continued the efforts of his predecessor renaming the centre “House of the Artists”. Among the internationally famed artists from Gugging are Johann Hauser, August Walla and Oswald Tschirtner. In praise of the oeuvre of the doctor and friend of the arts, Secretary of State Morak said for example: “With his activity Leo Navratil has made a decisive contribution to disentangle the ties between psychiatry and art“. The “Museum Gugging – Art/Brut Center” was opened on the estate of the former Regional Mental Hospital and future elite university still in the presence of Navratil in June of this year. ■

The Great Badge of Honour for Meritorious Service to the Republic of Austria has recently been granted to the composer Gladys Norden-strom Krenek. Secretary of State Morak paid homage to the widow of the composer Ernst Krenek, who rendered a service to Austria by ensuring that the estate of her late husband remained in Austria. It found a home at the Ernst Krenek Institute Private Foundation in Krems (Lower Austria). Krenek had to flee from Austria in 1938 for being a so-called “degenerate artist”. In the USA he met his loving and artistically like-minded soul mate Gladys Nordenstrom, who was devoted to the music of modernism and the work of her husband. ■

On the 6th “Day of Sport” Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel, Secretary of State for Sport Karl Schweitzer and Franz Löschnak, President of the Federal Sports Organisation (BSO), paid tribute to about 280 Austrian medal winners at World and European Championships as well as Olympic Games. With about 300,000 sport fans participating in the event, a new visitor record was set this year. “We offered a fantastic programme to all people interested in sport by presenting 67 sports and in more than 100 ‘join-in stops’ mounted by the Austrian sports associations”, said Schweitzer. This year’s special stamp issued by POST.AG was dedicated to skiing star Benny Raich. To organise this mass sports event, about 100 persons participated in the technical preparations during the last few days. 158 tents were put up and 15 kilometres of cables were laid. ■

Secretary of State for Sport Schweitzer invited to a discussion titled “Top-level sport in Austria – critical observations by athletes and trainers” in Bad Tatzmannsdorf (Burgenland). The first discussion round had been held after the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004. Its results laid the foundation for the new Federal Sport Promotion Act. Starting from this basis, the second round of the constructive talks, in which successful athletes and trainers like Claudia Heill, Anja Richter, Roman Hagara, Thomas Farnik, Christian Planer, Nik Berger, Robert Michlmayr or Hubert Rohrauer participated, also led to concrete findings. Unfortunately it is still a common practice in many sports associations to finance the expenditure not covered by the subsidies of Top Sport Austria with financial contributions of the trainers and athletes themselves. A new passage in the Top Sport Austria agreements is to stipulate that the sports associations are responsible for financing the costs not covered. Another passage is to ensure the flow of information between trainers and officials. To reduce the financial burden on the special sports associations, they are to be enabled to handle procurement through the national procurement agency BundesbeschaffungsGmbH. Thus the sports associations should be given an option – depending on the sponsoring situation – to procure products for the necessary infrastructure at considerably lower prices. Based on the positive and negative examples of mass sports events in Austria, the proposal of cooperating with professional agencies in the future was generally welcomed. This will not only relieve the sports associations of a major part of their responsibility for finances, security or organisation but also make less known sports more attractive. “It is desirable that the sports associations cooperate and talk more with their athletes. Especially with regard to information, there is still a great deficit. In fact, good athletes and trainers are the potential and capital of every sports association. This means that we have to continue optimising“, stated Schweitzer. ■

A total of 337,000 spectators watched the different races of the Cycling World Championship in Salzburg. “Cooperation between the organising committee of the Cycling World Championship and all groups involved was perfect”, concluded Secretary-General Wolfgang Weiss. Thanks to mass sports events of this kind, the partnership between the economy and sport is growing in importance. The Land of Salzburg benefited from about 90,000 additional hotel nights. The estimated Austria-wide value added generated by the event was 4.7 million euro. As far as the athletic aspect was concerned, the Austrian riders were rewarded with two top positions in the Sunday road race – Bernhard Eisel from Styria and his team mate René Haselbacher. ■