Dr. Werner Fasslabend

AIES President

Werner Fasslabend was born on March 5th, 1944 in Marchegg in Lower Austria.

He attended school at Gänserndorf in Lower Austria and in Vienna at the Theresianum, where he passed his school-leaving examinations in 1963.

After one year studying at Wilbraham Academy, USA, he went back to Austria and he graduated at the University of Vienna with the doctor’s degree of law.

Afterwards he worked one year in a court practice.

In 1971 he became Product Manager for Henkel-Persil/Austria and later on Director for Sales.

After being elected to various councils in his hometown Marchegg and in the Province of Lower Austria, he was nominated by the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) for a Representative to the Lower House (Member of Parliament) in 1987.

From December 1990 until February 2000 he was Federal Minister of Defence and thus became the longest serving Minister of Defence in the history of the Republic of Austria. During his tenure he initiated a far-reaching reformation in the Ministry and adapted the organisation of armed forces to the new threat scenario.

He also strongly supported Austria’s active participation in the formulation of the future European security-policy and organised the first meeting of EU-Ministers of Defence in 1998.

Furthermore he founded the Central European Cooperation in Peace-keeping (CENCOOP) in 1997.

From the 8th of February 2000 until the 20th of December 2002 he was the 3rd president (=speaker) of the Austrian parliament.

From the 11th of January 1997 until the 11th of October 2003 he has been holding the position of the chairman of the “Austrian Workers’ and Employees’ Association” in the Austrian People’s Party.

Besides being the president of the Austrian Institute for European and Security Policy (AIES) he is member of the managing-committee of the Austrian People’s Party and president of the Austrian-Slovak-Society as well as the parliamentary friendship group to Iran.

Since October 2004 he is the president of the Political Academy (PolAk) of the Austrian People’s Party.

Werner Fasslabend is married and has two children.