News & Events

In cooperation with the Renner-Institut the AIES organised on 2 December 2011 in Vienna a public discussion, analysing Austrian security policy in context of a European security policy.

On November 4, 2011 the Austria Institute for European and Security Studies (AIES) organized its 15th European Forum in the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna. Among the speakers were, besides Dr. Maria Fekter, Minister of Finance, the former Foreign Minister of Greece and Member of the European Parliament, Dimitrios Droutsas, Prof. Dr. Christian Keuschnigg from the University St. Gallen, Dr. Claus Raidl, President of the Austrian National Bank, Dr. Gertrude Tumpel-Gugerell, former member of the board of the European Central Bank, Prof. Hans Geeroms, economic advisor to the Belgian Prime Minister, and last but not least Dr. Christian Mölling from the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP).

The international conference took place in cooperation with the Political Academy, the Centre for European Studies and the European Security and Defence College (ESDC).

This year’s European Forum focused on the financial crisis and how the European Union had responded to this challenge. Minister of Finance, Maria Fekter, presented in her opening speech the six point programme which had been decided on by the European leaders on October 26. The programme includes the stabilization of Greece, that is to say a debt relief for Greece, a stabilization package for banks, a more flexible framework for the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and details about national budget discipline. Furthermore, the programme contains propositions for reducing macro-economic imbalances, actions to ensure fiscal sustainability in all EURO states, and strategic considerations on new improved management of the EURO-group. In principle Fekter regards the Euro as stable currency. The current crisis, she pointed out, is rather a sovereign debt crisis than a Euro crisis.

The former Greek Foreign Minister Droutsas shed light on the domestic situation in Greece and thanked Austria for the solidarity the country had shown to Greece which had always been an important member of the European Union; this is the reason why it is crucial to make sure Greece remains an EU member state. Prof. Keuschnigg and Prof. Geeroms provided an economic analysis whether already taken measures were sufficient to stabilize the European financial system, while Dr. Tumpel-Gugerell focused on the role the ECB could or should take in European financial and economic policy. Dr. Raidl underlined the success story of the Euro and called for more Europe.

In his closing remarks Dr. Mölling presented possible repercussions of the financial and economic crisis for the further development of the EU’s Common Security and Defense Policy.

The perspectives for political and economic co-operation between China and the EU were the topic of a joint conference of the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS) and the AIES on 12 September 2011 in Vienna. The Chinese and European experts concluded that the euphoria concerning the China-Europe partnership has disappeared and instead relations are kept sober and pragmatic. This event of both institutes was organized in co-operation with the Chinese Embassy in Vienna and the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO).

Alumnis of the programme on the Common Security and Defence Policy of the EU met in September in Ohrid (FYROM) at the “High Level Conference: Europe’s Security Policy”. The key note speech was given by the President of the AIES, Dr. Werner Fasslabend (Link to report in German).

Ten days after the independence of South Sudan, the AIES together with the Diplomatic Academy and the Political Academy organized on 19 July 2011 a lecture by H.E. Ali Ahmed Karti, the Foreign Minister of Sudan, and H.E. Yahia Hussein, State Minister for International Cooperation on the topic "Sudan after Secession: Prospects of European and African Cooperation".