Ernst-Peter Brezovszky Consul-General of the Republic of Austria in Cracow

May 22-24, 2002. A three-day-visit by the Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner to Wroc³aw, Cracow and Auschwitz gave many new impulses to the positive development of dynamic relations between Austria and southern Poland. Politics, economics, academic cooperation and culture-the intense program included events covering all these fields.

Two keynote speeches delivered by the foreign minister at the beautiful Leopoldina Auditorium of Wroc³aw University (The Future Development of the European Union-An Austrian Point of View) and at the equally impressive Auditorium of Collegium Novum at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow (Austria and Poland-Partners in Today's Europe) showed a new possible roadmap. A European core area is developing between Vienna, Wroc³aw and Cracow, with Austria and Poland as friends, partners and cultural neighbours in a future Europe of the Regions and Citizens, with stronger links between political, economic, academic and cultural activities. In Cracow, Mrs. Ferrero-Waldner was joined by the Secretary of State at the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Danuta Hübner. Ms. Hübner explained The Political Aims of European Integration-A Polish Point of View. The debate was a highlight in the framework of the Europa Dialog series of speeches, discussions and debates which the Rector of Jagiellonian University, Prof. Franciszek Ziejka and myself had developed and inaugurated in autumn 2000 as a regular Austro-Polish forum.

A business symposium Austria-Southern Poland was held at the S³owackiego Theater, bringing together representatives of thirteen Austrian companies and five southern Polish provinces (Ma³opolska, Lower Silesia, Opole, Silesia and Podkarpacie), along with an exhibition Modern Austrian Architecture in Today's Europe at the state-of-the art annex of the Jagiellonian Library, and an official declaration at the former concentration camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau. The first big official visit of an Austrian foreign minister to southern Poland since 1989 formulated new, future-oriented positions in many fields.

In May 2003, the next important cornerstone of even more active and dynamic Austrian-Polish relations will be laid by the two countries' heads of government. On May 16, 2003, Prime Minister Leszek Miller and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel will meet in Cracow for bilateral talks and open a two-day debate on the future of Europe, once again organized within the series Europa Dialoge. The Austrian members of the European Parliament Ursula Stenzel, Hannes
Swoboda, Christa Prets and Reinhard Rack, the Secretary General of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, Christian Domany, and the Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Ewald Nowotny will present their concrete views on tomorrow's Europe, together with Danuta Hübner and Józef Oleksy, chairman of the European Integration Committee in the Polish Sejm. This debate will take place at the Collegium Maius of Cracow's Jagiellonian University, during the Austrian Days on Europe in Cracow (May 16-18, 2003), jointly organized by the Austrian Consulate General in Cracow, the Ma³opolska Province and the City of Cracow. There will be concerts, an exhibition at our Consulate's Gallery dealing with Young Central Europe, a big open-air event in the market square, bringing together Austrian and Polish musicians and dancers, and a seminar on Commune Finances in the European Union at the Cracow City Hall, hosting among others Vienna's Deputy Mayor Sepp Rieder. The European Days will definitely give another signal as to the new advances in the friendship between our two countries.

On June 3, 2003, the mayor of Vienna, Michael Häupl, will pay an official visit to Cracow, thereby reshaping and further developing the relations between Vienna and Cracow. There will be political talks with Cracow Mayor Jacek Majchrowski, a presentation by the ballet of the Vienna Conservatory of Music at the beautiful S³owackiego Theater, and business talks. All these elements will certainly create new inspiration for those two wonderful cities linked by a common history. This visit will be the next step in the very active Viennese-Cracovian political relations which developed over the past few years.

In June 2000, with official authorization issued by the mayor of Vienna, Dr. Michael Häupl, I invited then-Mayor of Cracow Prof. Andrzej Go³as, to Vienna. This visit resulted in the signing of an important bilateral agreement on co-operation between Cracow and Vienna in October 2000. The contract touches on numerous spheres of activity, such as the European Union, environmental protection, transportation and culture.

In December 2001, one of the employees of the Cracow City Office completed a six-week-long training course in Wienhaus (Vienna House), a unit which is the official representative of Vienna in Brussels. As part of the training, the employee became familiar with the principles of the functioning of the EU and established significant contacts with EU representatives. She also learned about the method and purpose of the operations of the Vienna House in Brussels.

Cracow Days in Vienna in October 2002 presented numerous aspects of this important Central European city. A big delegation led by Cracow's city mayor visited Vienna. Cultural and economic events showed the enormous potential between the two cities anew. The visit by Mayor Michael Häupl in Cracow in June 2003 will be the first official visit by a mayor of Vienna in this city since decades. A continuation of the success story is practically guaranteed.

The new concept between Austria and southern Poland must generally be based on the creation of a network of bilateral contacts, concentrating to an equal extent on politics, economics, science and culture. A few more examples show clearly how much has been developing lately in this context.

In October 1999, the Head of Government of the Austrian Bundesland Salzburg, Governor Dr. Franz Schausberger, came to Cracow, giving a speech entitled Salzburg-Experiences of a Modern Region in Europe. This was the beginning of an extensive new policy of Austrian regions in southern Poland: specific cooperation on specific issues. The main idea was the organization of issue-oriented meetings with representatives of both Austrian Bundesländer and the provinces of southern Poland.

Since then, the Governor of Styria Waltraud Klasnic, the presidents of the parliaments of Styria, Vorarlberg, Upper Austria, and the mayors of Innsbruck and Klagenfurt have been to Ma³opolska, Lower Silesia, Silesia, Opole and Podkarpacie. The aim of all these important visits was to discuss the possibilities of cooperation, especially in the area of politics and economics.

Ever since I assumed my function in Cracow in September 1999, I have been emphasizing again and again: In today's Europe, that is, the Europe of the Regions and the Citizens, Austria and southern Poland are natural partners and close friends, indeed. We build on a common history. Even more important, though: We have important common interests in the framework of European integration which we should develop, formulate and defend in Brussels and elsewhere. For the sake of our young people, business communities, scientists, cultural protagonists, cities and regions: we must develop sustainable structures within the New Europe. The people in both our countries will share the advantages.



The Consul General of the Austrian Republic in Cracow is Dr. Ernst-Peter Brezovszky. Born in 1961 in Innsbruck, Brezovszky graduated from the Law Department of Vienna University and from postgraduate studies (European Policy) at the College of Europe in Brugge. He worked in the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the International Law Department and the Department for Eastern European Affairs. He worked as a diplomat in Jakarta and London and as a deputy ambassador of the Austrian Republic in Brazil. He was appointed consul-general in Cracow in 1999.

Brezovszky is married and has three children. His hobbies are music, literature and tennis.


The Consulate General in Cracow, whose jurisdiction encompasses the whole region of southern Poland, was founded in 1990. The Cracow consulate has a unique status in Poland since Cracow and most of the southern region is connected to Austria through a common history.
www.austria.krakow.pl