Franz Schausberger makes Salzburg the capital city of the regions of Europe for two days!
Utl.: First general assembly of the "Institute of the Regions of Europe" in Mattsee

On Tuesday afternoon the first general assembly of the Institute of the Regions of Europe took place in Schloss Mattsee in Salzburg. Top class politicians from Austria and from all parts of Europe participated. Approximately 100 participants from 14 European countries as well as the highest representatives of 34 European regions accepted the invitation by Dr. Franz Schausberger, President of the Board of Directors and former provincial governor.

Peter Straub, President of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Giovanni Di Stasi, President of the Congress of Municipalities and regions of the Council of Europe, Ivan Jakovcic, Vice-President of the Assembly of European Regions (AER) as well as Ing. Evzen Tosenovsky, President of the Moravian-Silesian Region, were present at the assembly among others. The Federal Government was represented by Federal Minster Maria Rauch-Kallat, welcome speeches were held by Fr. Franz Fischler, former EU-Commissioner and Dr. Thomas Mayer-Hartig, political director of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the beginning of the assembly, Schausberger thanked the founders of the Institute, in particular the Austrian Federal Chancellery Austria, represented by the Austrian Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel and the provinces Tyrol, Upper Austria, Lower Austria and the region Istria in Croatia. Schausberger claimed that the intense international interest paid to the two days convention proved that the foundation of the Institute of the Regions of Europe was a correct and necessary decision.

Schausberger emphasised, that the Institute was neither a competing nor rivalling with the existing organisations. Instead it was understood that the Institute of the Regions of Europe was a complement of the existing organisations and it will dedicate itself to support the Regions. The objective was to create an optimal network for the most diverse regions of Europe and to develop a strategic cooperation. Academic publications and periodical symposia were planned. During the Austrian EU-presidency a symposium of interregional European organisations was planned by the IRE for the first time. "In the long run we want to build a platform for discussions and for cooperation", declared Schausberger.

The rejection of the EU constitution in some member states showed that some things in Europe "do not go the way they should", emphasised Schausberger. Therefore, the Austrian EU-presidency is a great responsibility for Austria. The new constitution contained a number of improvements for the regions; a discussion with the citizens was of particular importance. He noted in several conversions with young people in the new accession states that the demand for information was very high. Schausberger emphasised that the entire constitution depends on the extent of involvement of the various regions in the ratification process. In spite of backstrokes, one must not forget that a number of states accepted the constitution, still it would be a fault to go back to every-day business.

Former EU-commissioner Franz Fischler also considers it to be wrong to believe that the "EU-crisis was only a summer slump." Those who think they can ride it out are wrong. It is necessary to seriously deal with the reasons. One of the reasons was that there was a German, Austrian, French, etc. way of European politics, but not European way. This was caused among other factors by a deficiency of democracy in the EU. The various parties in the European Parliament need to participate more actively in the mutual contest of ideas and they "should more often appear in public as political force". Fischler complimented the initiatives of the IRE to be Austria's most important contribution to the strengthening of the European Region.

Currently, one basic problem of the EU is the fact that national politicians in all of Europe have the tendency to claim successes in Brussels to be a national success, whereas national failures are blamed to be failures by the EU, claims ambassador Dr. Thomas Mayer-Harting. The last presidency was in 1998, in accordance with the new EU-constitution Austria's next presidency was scheduled for 2019. That is why the presidency was a great challenge. Austria needs to fulfil three tasks in the course of its presidency:

1. to be mediator for internal affairs (between the EU-member states)

2. to be the EU mediator in the whole world.

3. to give Europe's citizens an understanding of the Union.

Mayr-Harting declared that the EU constitution, the EU "enlargement" and the financial budgeting 2007 to 20013 was most important. Concerning the EU-constitution, Mayr-Harting emphasised that the ratification process is being continued, however it is impossible to predict what the situation is going to be like during the presidency. Two countries have already rejected the constitution, in 11 countries the ratification process has been finished, in two countries (Germany, Slovakia) the ratification process has been finished on a parliamentary level, in two other countries the parliamentary proceedings are currently taking place. In eight countries no decision on the ratification has been made so far.