2023-06-15 11:41:00
Top-class guests from June 22nd to 24th in the Wachau
St.Pölten (OTS) – “Building a Resilient, Green and Competitive Europe” – this is the motto of this year’s Europe Forum Wachau, which will take place from June 22nd to 24th. Today, Thursday, Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner, Europe Minister Karoline Edtstadler and the President of the Europe Forum Martin Eichtinger gave an outlook on the most important topics, program items and guests of the Europe-wide and internationally known and recognized discussion forum.
“Lower Austria is a strong, self-confident and visionary state in Europe. A country where old Europe used to end has become a place in the heart of Europe,” said Governor Mikl-Leitner at the beginning. Lower Austria has benefited greatly since Austria’s accession to the European Union, she stated at first: “Every euro that we invest in the EU comes back three times over. We have 100 percent exhaustion of the funding pots, the national average is 95 percent.” Lead projects here are, for example, the “House of Digitization” in Tulln or the “health across” project in Gmünd. Since joining the EU in 1995, a total of EUR 665 million in EU regional funding has flowed to Lower Austria, meaning that more than 6,200 projects have been implemented, and total investments of around EUR 4 billion have created around 15,000 jobs, according to the provincial governor.
“Precisely because the EU is so important to us, it is also important to us that the EU develops in the right direction,” emphasized Mikl-Leitner, with a view to the elections to the European Parliament, which will take place in about a year. In this context, she demanded: “The EU must stop getting lost in details, new bans and requirements.” For example, there are no EU regulations when it comes to protecting the forests, restricting cash or protecting wolves: “It is no longer the wolf that is threatened, but people’s sense of security.” You don’t need “a European Union of bids and bans, but a union of peace, freedom and competitiveness,” said the governor, who formulated four guidelines in this regard. First of all, one must “strengthen the competitiveness of the European Union and thus secure our prosperity” by making one’s own economic cycles more independent of other economic regions. Secondly, she called for “technology openness to be the top priority in European climate policy” and for industry to be understood “as a partner and not as an opponent” in the fight against climate change: “Innovations are not created at the desks in Brussels, but in our companies .” Thirdly, one must “better protect the EU’s external borders”, Mikl-Leitner continued, and fourthly, one needs “an EU that performs better again and is less standardized”. She identified a “tendency towards centralization” and called for a “return to the principle of subsidiarity”, because “strengthening the principle of subsidiarity also strengthens trust in the EU”.
Mikl-Leitner emphasized that the aim was to promote these four guidelines at the European Forum and also at European level. The aim is “an alliance of the reasonable” and “a Europe that tackles the major challenges with common sense and takes care of the concerns of the citizens”, because “it is high time for a course correction of the EU”.
“The Wachau as a region and the European Forum as an institution once again invite you to a discussion about Europe in the heart of Europe,” said Federal Minister Karoline Edtstadler, looking forward to the upcoming days in the Wachau. On Friday, June 23, she will meet her two counterparts Peter Burke from Ireland and Tytti Tuppurainen from Finland in a round table talk. On Saturday, June 24, Matthias Kettemann from the University of Innsbruck and Wolfgang Kleinwaechter from from the University of Aarhus discussing the topic of “Internet Security” with her, she gave a brief insight into the program.
“The EU and the world are facing major challenges and upheavals,” said the Europe Minister, referring to the war in Ukraine, price increases, inflation and a shortage of skilled workers. “Only together” is it possible to preserve peace, freedom and security: “We must defend Europe’s values in order to secure Europe’s prosperity and use change to do so.” For example, ecological and digital change is unstoppable and it applies now , to set “the right course”, she was convinced. But what is needed above all for this is “the discourse, the competition of the best ideas,” according to Edtstadler.
Since it was founded in 1995, 29 prime ministers and 39 foreign and European affairs ministers have been guests at the European Forum, said the President of the European Forum, Martin Eichtinger. As highlights of this year’s programme, he named a boat trip on the Danube in connection with round table talks by top-class guests, or the participation of 80 young people from nine countries of the European Union: “In the framework of the forum, they will present their ideas for the future of Europe Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg will meet his counterparts from the Czech Republic (Jan Lipavsky), Slovakia (Miroslav Wlachovsky) and Croatia (Gordan Grlic Radman) on Friday morning. On the same day, Education Minister Martin Polaschek will meet the Swiss State Secretary for Education, Martina Hirayama, discuss, Eichtinger gave a preview. On Saturday, June 24, Chancellor Karl Nehammer will give a speech, as will the President of the Republic of Bulgaria, Rumen Radev. Guests on the opening day Thursday, June 22, include Serbian Minister of Justice Maja Popovic, Vice-President of the European Commission Margrethe Vestager, First Vice-President of the European Parliament Othmar Karas, President of the Economic Chamber Harald Mahrer and President of “Eurochambres” Vladimir Dlouhy. President Eichtinger concludes: “The European Forum Wachau has meanwhile become a fixed point in the European and international discourse”.
Questions & contact:
Office of the Lower Austrian provincial government
State Office Directorate/Public Relations
Mag. Christian Salzmann
02742/9005-12172
presse@noel.gv.at
www.noe.gv.at/presse
1686829270
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