The minimum pensions for single persons will increase by 4.1% in 2006, while the major part of higher pensions will be raised by 2.5%. This has been agreed at a summit meeting between leading government members and the pensioners’ lobby on 26 September 2005. After the Council of Ministers, Chancellor Schüssel referred to a “useful, generous and comprehensive pensioners’ package“.
The pension increase by 2.5% benefits about 95% of all pensioners and fully compensates for inflation. An additional amount of 46.88 euro has been fixed only for pensions exceeding 1,875 euro. Next year the standard rate for top-up benefits to minimum pensions will be increased significantly for single persons (from currently 662.99 to 690 euro). Minimum pensions (1,015 euro) for married couples will not be raised.
In this context the Federal Chancellor highlighted the marked increase in pension expenditure in the federal government budget from 26 billion euro in 1999 to 32.4 billion euro in 2004. “This comparison is sufficient to demonstrate the priority of our policy for senior citizens“, said Schüssel. ■

“We can be proud of the Austrian administration and its staff“, Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel showed himself pleased about the outstanding result achieved by the Austrian participants in the internationally renowned Speyrer Quality Competition 2005.
As this competition for innovative administration – in which also Germany and Switzerland participated – showed, Austria is a model of public administration. E-government proved to be the speciality of the Austrian administration. Austria received most prizes and awards and also recorded the highest share in prize-winning projects. Prizes were awarded for a partnership-oriented, innovative management close to the citizen. In the e-government category the Federal Chancellery, the Directorate of the Parliament in Vienna (“e-law“) and the Ministry of Finance (“Finance Ministry on the Internet“) were among the prize winners. ■

According to the official election results, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) polled 41.67% of the 929,795 votes cast in the elections for Styria’s regional Parliament (“Landtag”). The People’s Party (ÖVP) received 38.66%, while the Freedomites (FPÖ) and Greens won 4.56% and 4.73% of the votes, respectively. With 6.34% of the votes, the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) became the third power in Styria and is represented for the first time in the Landtag. The distribution of seats is as follows: SPÖ 25; ÖVP: 24; KPÖ: 4; Greens: 3.
Governor designate and successor of Waltraut Klasnic (ÖVP) is Franz Voves, the chairman of the Styrian SPÖ.
In the regional elections in Burgenland on 9 October 2005 the SPÖ – chaired by Governor Hans Niessl – won an absolute majority with 52.23% (preliminary final result). The ÖVP scored 36.34% and the FPÖ 5.76%. 5.20% of the votes went to the Greens. A total of 242,218 citizens were eligible to vote.
Four parties are represented in the Landtag:
SPÖ: 19 seats; ÖVP: 13; FPÖ: 2; Greens: 2. ■

On 30 September 2005 the Constitutional Court invited to a ceremony held on the occasion of the 85th anniversary of the adoption of the Federal Constitution Act. President Heinz Fischer presented his reform proposals for the Bundesrat, the 2nd chamber of Parliament. Fischer pled for a strong Nationalrat (1st chamber) as the people’s representation and a Bundesrat with useful tasks. He was convinced that the Austria Convention set up by the government was a solid basis for a reform of the Constitution. ■

The 2005 Peace Nobel Prize goes to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquartered in Vienna and its Director General Mohamed ElBaradei. This is a tribute to the commitment to preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. ■

After the Council of Ministers on 4 October 2005, Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel was content with and “proud” of the result of the negotiations about Turkey’s EU membership in Luxembourg. “We wanted the entry talks with Turkey to begin. For Turkey a European policy is important. But it is also important for the European Union and thus for us that Turkey is oriented towards Europe”, said Schüssel. Austria was on “friendly terms” with Turkey, which was pressing ahead with important reforms that should be supported. Before Turkey’s accession to the EU a referendum would be held in Austria, stressed the Federal Chancellor.
Austria had achieved that the EU’s capacity of integration and financial equal treatment of all states became prerequisites for the entry of Turkey and other candidate countries. Now it was a must to unanimously approve the negotiating mandate concerning each individual chapter as well as the successful conclusion of a chapter. “All Member States had to participate fairly in the costs of accession and no special rules or discounts should be granted“, emphasised Schüssel.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik underlined that the membership negotiations would speed up reforms in Turkey, from which human rights groups and women would benefit. According to the Minister, it was also important to involve the European public in this enlargement process. ■

It has also been crucial to involve Croatia in the negotiations about the opening of EU membership talks with Turkey, stressed Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel after the Council of Ministers on 4 October 2005. “We have achieved this goal. It is important not to leave behind the Croatians. They are now integrated into the negotiation process”, said the Federal Chancellor. He also informed that the Balkans would be a top priority during the Austrian EU Presidency.
“If the go-ahead is now given for negotiations with Croatia, this clearly demonstrates that goals can be achieved when the approach is adequate. I congratulate the Croatian government and the Croatian people on this step“, said the Federal Chancellor.
Croatia’s Prime Minister Ivo Sanader expressed his sincere thanks to Austria: “I would like to explicitly state that Federal Chancellor Schüssel played a significant role. Of course, we have met all requirements regarding full cooperation with the War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague but Austria has always supported Croatia’s accession to the EU“, explained Sanader in an interview with the Austrian Press Agency (APA). ■

On 6 October 2005 Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik met with her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. The main aim of the Foreign Minister’s visit to Russia was to prepare the Austrian EU Presidency in the first six months of 2006. The next meeting of ministers of the EU Troika with Russia will take place in February. Besides bilateral issues, the situation on the Balkans and in the Middle East as well as affairs concerning the UN and OSCE were discussed.
“The bilateral relations between Austria and Russia are friendly and smooth and show an outstanding dynamism, notably in the economic sector“, said Plassnik. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov expressed his country’s great interest in intensifying cooperation with the EU as soon as possible. ■

On 6 October 2005 Albanian President Alfred Moisiu arrived in Vienna for a two-day official visit. Among the items on his agenda were talks with Federal President Heinz Fischer and Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel. Alba¬nia supported the independence of Kosovo, explained Moisiu to reporters. Federal President Fischer stated that it was a prerequisite for opening status talks that Albania met UN and EU standards in the spheres of democracy, human rights and economy. ■

Based on estimates, congress tourism in Austria creates an annual value-added of about 1 billion euro and accounts for 7% of the entire domestic turnover in tourism. In an international country and city ranking of the Union of International Associations (UIA), Austria is ranked 9th with 279 congresses and conferences, while Vienna is number two with 1,633 events (status: 2004).
The USA (1,080 events) is leading before France (552) and Germany (491).
The sector expects powerful impetus in 2006 from the Austrian EU Presidency during the first six months and the Mozart Year. This was announced at the press conference of the Austrian tourism promotion agency Österreich Werbung (ÖW) organised in the framework of the congress tourism fair “Access“ in Vienna’s Hofburg on 3 October 2005. More than 130 congresses, conferences and official meetings would talk place just during the Austrian EU Presidency, informed ÖW expert Inge Tremmel. According to Rudolf Kadanka, President of ABC, the umbrella organisation for congress tourism, Austria benefited from its favourable geographic location, its infrastructure and high security standards.
“Congress tourism is the royal discipline of tourism", stated member of the AUA Managing Board Josef Burger. AUA reaped a profit of about 50 million euro from this segment, flights from and to Austria accounted for three quarters of this amount. ■

The Ministry for Economic Affairs recognised Eurofighter counterdeals worth 265 million euro for 2004. This was announced by Minister Martin Bartenstein on 5 October 2005 during a visit to the Airbus production site in Toulouse (South France). An order volume of more than 2 billion euro was guaranteed by contracts. Fischer Advanced Composite Components (FACC) in Ried (OÖ) delivering components to Airbus accounted for half the amount.
Counterdeals totalling 190 million euro were recognised for 2002 and 2003. The Eurofighter and EADS group had agreed to do counterdeals amounting to 4 billion euro within the next 15 years in exchange for the purchase of 18 combat planes for almost 2 billion euro. ■

Siemens Austria (Siemens Transportation Systems) was awarded a major contract (total value 330 million euro) from Norway for 63 tripartite underground trains. According to the Economic Chamber Austria, this is the largest single order ever placed with an Austrian company by Norway exceeding the total volume of Austrian exports to Norway. The Oslo city parliament approved the purchase in two stages, namely in late August and late September. The framework agreement had been concluded in 2003. The first two prototypes of the underground trains based on Porsche Design’s aluminium construction were handed over to the Norwegians on 23 August 2003. The delivery of the series-produced trains has been scheduled for February 2007. This order safeguards about 2,000 jobs at the Siemens production sites in Vienna and Graz during several years. ■

The OMV made once more “significant” oil discoveries in the Murzuq basin, about 800 kilometres south of the Libyan capital Tri¬poli. The first pilot production resulted in up to 2,060 barrels of high-quality oil per day, OMV informed on 3 October 2005. “This discovery is a great success for our core region Libya, a pillar of our international exploration and production portfolio“, stated Helmut Langanger, member of the OMV Managing Board. Currently, OMV produced 27,500 barrels per day in Libya.
OMV produces oil in 17 countries located in five core regions: the Danube-Adriatic region, Northern Africa, British North Sea, the Middle East/Caspian region and Australia/New Zealand. OMV’s worldwide daily production was about 340,000 barrels, of which 40,000 originated in Austria. The total oil and gas reserves amount to about 1.4 billion per day. This makes OMV Central Europe’s leading oil and gas group. ■

Austrian Secretary of State for the Arts and Media Franz Morak participated in the 33rd session of the General Conference of UNESCO in Paris on 4 October 2005. In this context, he commented on the Convention on the Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Contents and Artistic Expressions: “The Convention ensures that the special status of cultural assets and services is recognised, which may not be traded simply as merchandise or consumer goods as they convey identities and value concepts. The promotion of cultural diversity is necessary not only at European level but also globally, for people are increasingly afraid of a loss of identity especially in the age of globalisation. Against this background, it is of growing importance to protect and promote cultural diversity and cooperation in the cultural sphere“. The Convention is to be adopted on 20 October 2005 by a majority of a total of 191 UNESCO members. In Paris Morak also met with his French counterpart Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres, with whom he discussed issues related to Austria’s forthcoming EU Presidency. Following an invitation of the French Minister of Culture, Morak also attended Christian Dior’s fashion show held at the Grand Palais in the framework of the French fashion week. His official programme also included a visit to the recently opened exhibition “Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Moser. Vienne 1900“ at the Grand Palais as well as a meeting with Afghani President Hamid Karzai and a visit to the French art fair FIAC. ■

The Leopold Museum in Vienna is presenting masterworks from the French Musee d’Orsay. Visitors may admire the about 40 paintings, mainly by French impressionists and artists like van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne until 30 January 2006. In an exchange with the Vienna-based museum , the Grand Palais in Paris shows key works of Vienna modernism by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka and Moser in the show “Vienne 1900“. Both exhibitions are arousing the keen interest of the public. The French Cultural Attaché stressed the significance of this “extraordinary cultural exchange“ for the Austro-French relations, especially against the background of the 50th anniversary of the Austrian State Treaty. While the exhibition “Impressionists from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris“ at Vienna’s art centre Museumsquartier captivates the audience with paintings previously not shown in Austria such as van Gogh’s famous “Starry Night“ or “The Dance Lesson“ by Degas, the visitors in Paris are enthused about the more than 91 paintings and 55 drawings created between 1890 and 1918 by brilliant Austrian painters, e.g. Klimt’s “Nuda Veritas“, Schiele’s “Dead Mother“, Kokoschka’s “Annunciation“ and Moser’s “Three Crouching Women“. Numerous events accompanying the exhibition ending on 23 January 2006, among them the literary café organised by director Patrick Guinand with Viennese actors, will repeatedly turn a spotlight on Vienna in an epoch torn between decadence and the beginning of modernism. ■

The representative of Viennese Actionism Hermann Nitsch receives the Great Austrian State Prize 2005. As Secretary of State Morak informed the public on 5 October 2005, Nitsch was a “key figure of Austrian contemporary artistic creation addressing basic questions of human life in his work“. Born in Vienna in 1938, Hermann Nitsch attended the college for graphic arts (Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt) in Vienna and explored religious themes already in his first paintings. Since 1957 the artist has consistently pursued the idea of a “feast of existence” determining his entire oeuvre and conceived as a synthesis of the arts, the so-called “Theatre of Orgies & Mysteries (O.M. Theatre). His “(painting) actions” started in the 1960s mark the main stages of Vienna Actionism. After being invited to the “Destruction in Art Symposium” in 1966, Nitsch, Günter Brus and Otto Mühl achieved an international breakthrough. The “action performance” before an international audience was stopped by the police, causing a worldwide stir. After that Nitsch received numerous invitations to participate in performances and exhibitions, e.g. in New York, Berlin, Paris and Zurich. In 1972 and 1982 Nitsch participated in the documenta shows V and VII in Kassel. His works have been collected by distinguished international museums since the 1980s. In 1988 then Federal Chancellor Franz Vranitzky travelled to the great Actionism exhibition to Kassel, where he stated that it was the task of politics to protect art “against censorship and political influence”. A highlight of the work of Nitsch is the realisation of the so-called “Six-Day Play” in the Baroque Palace of Prinzendorf (Lower Austria) acquired by his wife in 1971, who later died in an accident. His “synthesis of the arts for all the senses” orchestrated on the basis of a detailed score combines “actions” of painting, music and the culinary sphere. On 19 Novem¬ber 2005 Hermann Nitsch will create another performance of his Theatre of Orgies & Mysteries at the Burgtheater in Vienna.
The Great Austrian State Prize is the highest award of the Republic of Austria granted once a year for an artists’ entire oeuvre. It had been created in 1950 by the then Minister of Education Felix Hurdes and is awarded based on the proposal of the Austrian Arts Senate for achievements in literature, music, visual arts and architecture (without any fixed system of rotation of the arts). While the prize was originally awarded in several categories, it has been given to just one person per year since 1971. Prominent prize-winners were, for example, the authors Wolfgang Bauer, Ilse Aichinger, Andreas Okopenko, Gert Jonke, the architects Coop Himmel-b(l)au, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Günther Domenig and composer H. K. Gruber. ■

The 2005 Heinrich von Kleist Prize, one of the most renowned literature prizes in the German-speaking area, goes to Austrian writer Gert Jonke. The award will be presented to him in Berlin on 20 November 2005. Director Jürgen Flimm, the future head of the Salzburg Festival, will give the laudatio. Among Jonke’s outstanding works are the “Geometrische Heimatroman“ (“Geometric Regional Novel”), his novel “Der ferne Klang“ and theatre plays like “Chorphantasie“ or the film narration “Geblendeter Augenblick – Anton Weberns Tod“. His new play “Die versunkene Kathedrale“ was recently premiered at Vienna’s Akademietheate receiving the acclaim of the audience and critics. ■

In 2005 158 Austrian publishers will participate in the Frankfurt Book Fair (from 19 to 23 October 2005), while in 2004 it were still almost 200 publishing houses from Austria. At Austria’s collective stand 22 publishers will present their new publications and programme highlights. This year’s common stand of the interest group of Austrian authors (“IG Autorinnen und Autoren”) is under the motto “Nie mehr Kabelsalat!“ (“No more cable chaos!”). Nine of the 75 exhibitors at the Frank¬furt Second-Hand Book Trade Fair, which has been held for the first time in the framework of the Book Fair, come from Austria. The collective stand of the Federation of the Austrian Book Trade will be opened on 19 Octo¬ber 2005 by Secretary of State for the Arts Morak. At the fair stand of “IG Autorinnen und Autoren” more than 500 new literary publications of 130 Austrian publishers will be presented. This year the “LiteRadio“ will broadcast for the fifth time. With 150 pages, the free catalogue “Die Literatur“ published every year for the book festival is more comprehensive than ever. It lists 1,672 new literary publications of Austrian publishing houses as well as Austrian authors published by German and Swiss publishers in 2005. Experts have described Austria’s book publishing industry as more vibrant than ever. This year the Frankfurt Book Fair expects a new record with more than 7,000 exhibitors from more than 100 countries. At least 500 events will be dedicated to this year’s guest of honour Korea. About 270,000 visitors are expected. ■

Austria has nominated Michael Haneke’s feature film “Caché“ (e.g. with Juliette Binoche) for the Oscar competition – a film previously winning the director’s prize in Cannes. This decision was unanimously taken by a jury consisting of ten members of the film industry on 27 September 2005. The final selection of the five films for the Oscar category “Best Foreign Language Film“ by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take place in January 2006. According to the jury, Haneke’s film was “radical, exciting and entertaining, it meets the requirements of cinema and art“. In 2001 Haneke won the Grand Prize of the Jury for his film version of Elfriede Jelinek’s novel “The Piano Teacher“ at the Film Festival in Cannes. This film made the Austrian writer, who became the sensational Nobel Prize Laureate in Literature in 2004, known to a wider audience. Isabelle Huppert und Benoît Magimel were then also celebrated as the “Best Actresses“. ■

The houses and apartments of art collectors accommodate great treasures that generally remain inaccessible to the public. For the show “Discovery and Ownership“ curator Eva Badura-Triska visited about 100 private collections. Major parts of 10 of these collections are now presented at the Vienna Museum of Modern Art (MUMOK). The show focuses on the international orientation of the collections and the different collector profiles. More than 400 exhibits demonstrate that the spectrum of the works collected in Austria is extremely wide and of outstanding quality. The exhibition displays paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, video and photo works of international and Austrian artists from the early 20th century to the present. Video portraits present the collectors and their highly different professional backgrounds. What is common to them is their unconditional love of the arts. One of them, Helmut Zambo (collecting e.g. works by August Walla, an artist from the mental institution Gugging) said: “Art makes you addict and produces happiness“. ■

Whether the visitors like the works displayed or not, the architecture of the Essl Collection in Klosterneuburg near Vienna fascinates them immediately: white high rooms give the impression of spaciousness and large glass windows open into the landscape and the sky. Like many other buildings by architect Heinz Tesar from Tyrol, the museum is a work of art. The protestan¬t church or the entrance made of concrete pillars of the convent in Klosterneuburg express spirituality. The Roman-Catholic church in Vienna’s Danube City “Christ, Hope of the World“ impresses with its simplicity. Tesar’s architectural model for the theatre in Hallein (Salzburg) or his office and business centre near the Zwinger in Dres¬den are fascinating. In Berlin Tesar forms part of the planning group for the large-scale museum island project. In its exhibition halls at the Pinakothek der Moderne the Architecture Museum of the Munich Technical University presents drawings, sketches, texts, models and objects in a first comprehensive show dedicated to the unique poet-architect, who does not start with the architectural design to perform a construction contract but with the question what precedes form and how forms are created: “I slowly approach architecture and explore all forms, I open them up and see what they offer“. ■

A special gift for literature friends has just appeared in the autumn of Austria’s anniversary year 2005. An anthology of the Austrian literature after 1945 has been published by Residenz Verlag under the title “Landver-messung“. It comprises a total of 8,000 pages and includes 140 authors and their masterpieces. The 21 volumes are presented in a colourful “suitcase” designed by Peter Pongratz. The anniversary price for the entire anthology is only 50 euro. It became possible thanks to a generous subsidy. 350,000 euro were contributed from the Federal Chancellery’s Anniversary Fund, smaller donations came from the Länder, the Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs. ■

At the International Leipzig Documentaries and Animation Film Festival two Austrian films won. The FIPRESCI prize went to Michael Glawogger’s “Workingman’s Death“. Arash R. Riahi’s short film “Mississippi“ won the main prize in the category “animation”. ■

Karl Decker, former Austrian Football Association (ÖFB) team player and team leader, died on 27 September 2005. During his career with numerous highlights, Decker scored 605 goals in more than 600 matches for the football club “Vienna”, participated in 25 international matches and kicked in eight matches for Germany. From 1958 to 1964 he successfully led the Austrian team through 36 matches. “With Karl De¬cker an Austrian football and sport legend passed away. For several generations Karl Decker was the symbol of a new beginning of the Austrian sport in the post-war era. With his top achievements in sports, Karl Decker has greatly contributed to giving the domestic football the status it deserved”, stressed Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel. Secretary of Sports Karl Schweitzer also expressed his sincere regret about Decker’s death: “With the death of Karl Decker sport loses one of the great of Austrian football. He was one of the first very successful League players and continued his brilliant success in the 1960s as the trainer of the Austrian national team. I have been very fortunate to know this personality very well and I will always revere the memory of Karl Decker“. ■

“I am pleased about the new dynamism and the commitment in the track and field sports“, Secretary of State Schweitzer told the press. “By appointing Johannes Langer marketing director, the Austrian Track and Field Sports Association (ÖLV) made an important step towards structural improvements. Moreover, I am happy that Elmar Lichtenegger will dedicate his experience as a top athlete and his practice-oriented know-how to the search for young hopefuls and the work with the new generation. I am convinced that the track and field sports will benefit from the support of the new team member and the use of targeted marketing measures“, stated Schweitzer. In 2005 the Austrian Track and Field Sports Association receives 47.24% more funds from the federal sport budget than last year. “This is a very significant increase and a solid basis for improving the performance level and quality on a long-term basis”, concluded Schweitzer. ■

Possible threats to the financing of Austrian sport resulting from the EU Service Directive were discussed at an information event of the Federal Sport Organisation (BSO) in Vienna. EU experts showed themselves optimistic that the gambling monopoly would remain in force in Austria and that three percent of the turnover of the Austrian Lotteries would continue to go to sports in Austria. Member of the European Parliament Christa Preits was of the opinion that the European Parliament had succeeded with its demands that the Service Directive should take into account the interests of sport. EU legal expert Reinhard Prugger also stressed that the European Court of Justice had recognised the special status of sport in its rulings. ■

The former home of the legendary miracle football team has been renovated. Up to 85,000 visitors used to crowd what was probably Europe’s most famous natural football arena. At the last game in April 1932 a 8:2 victory was scored over the arch-rival from Hungary before 62,000 fans. The national team then moved to today’s Happel stadium. The traditional facility, which had been a factory site up to 1921, was completely revamped and has now re-opened to the sport enthusiasts.