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P 041520Z DEC 06
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO AU OPRC
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: December 04, 2006 
 
 
Coalition Talks to Continue 
 
¶1. The next round of talks between representatives from the SPOe and 
the OeVP to form a grand coalition begins today. At the top of the 
agenda are issues including government and administrative reforms, 
as well as social affairs, such as the details and financing of the 
proposed basic security payments for financially disadvantaged 
Austrians. 
Among the key issues up for discussion, according to ORF radio early 
morning news Morgenjournal, is the question of how the proposed 
basic security payment can be financed: Who is going to pay for the 
roughly 660 million Euros the measure would cost annually, according 
to SPOe estimates? The OeVP meanwhile says financial means required 
for the payments will likely be even higher. That is why the 
provinces want to have their say in the matter - after all it is 
they who are responsible for public relief and social welfare. Thus, 
the provincial governors will meet in Upper Austria on Monday to 
discuss this expected financial burden, and to determine how the 
costs might be shared. 
 
 
Schoenborn against Child Benefit Regulation 
 
¶2. The Cardinal of Vienna, Christoph Schoenborn, has spoken out 
against a law introduced by Social Affairs Minister Ursula Haubner, 
which denies benefits to children of some foreign-born women until 
they obtain a passport and a visa for their child. Speaking on ORF 
TV on Sunday, Schoenborn emphasized he hoped "this eminently 
discriminating regulation" will be "cancelled immediately." 
On ORF TV4s program Meet the Press on December 2, Cardinal 
Schoenborn harshly criticized the Social Affairs Minister's 
controversial regulation on child care benefits. He welcomed the 
fact that there have been "quite clear signals" from both major 
Austrian parties in favour of dropping the law during the coalition 
negotiations between the Social Democrats the Conservatives. At the 
weekend, the decree was still in force despite opposition from the 
SPOe and the OeVP, who between them have the majority of seats in 
Parliament. Ursula Haubner from the BZOe, the Social Affairs 
Minister in the outgoing caretaker government, has refused to take 
back the regulation. Sources say it is possible that parliamentary 
action could force her to do so this week. 
Also, due to demographic development and the over-ageing of society, 
the Cardinal suggested, Austria would necessarily have to rely on 
more immigrants in the future, particularly in the hospital, private 
and geriatric care sectors. He stressed that "no one is suggesting 
an uncontrolled opening of the borders, but it will also not do to 
completely shut down the borders." 
 
 
Calls for Pilz to Resign over Inquiry 
 
¶3. There has been massive criticism from the BZOe of Greens MP and 
security spokesperson Peter Pilz: The head of a parliamentary 
inquiry into the purchase of Eurofighter jets for Austria, is 
accused of running a personal campaign against Finance Minister 
Karl-Heinz Grasser. Pilz has meanwhile defended his leadership of 
the investigative committee, emphasizing he is committed to a "fair 
and objective" process. 
The Alliance for Austria's Future (BZOe), which at present is in the 
government coalition with the People's Party (OeVP), has called on 
Pilz to resign, semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung reported on 
December 2.  The jets have been ordered, but not yet delivered, and 
the SPOe has long been looking for possible alternatives. EADS, the 
company which produces the Euro fighter jets, says quitting the deal 
now would cost Austria 1.2 billion Euros. 
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister has begun disciplinary proceedings 
against a departmental head in his Ministry who sent information to 
the investigation. 
According to the daily, the head of the budget department in the 
Ministry, Gerhard Steger, defended his decision to re-direct an 
email from Grasser, saying he felt the message was relevant to 
whether the Minister had tried to influence Ministry officials' 
testimonies. The Greens and the Social Democrats (SPOe) had earlier 
accused Minister Grasser of trying to intimidate his staff. 
 
 
Plassnik on Middle East Trip 
 
 
¶4. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik was on a three-day trip 
to the Middle East last weekend. She visited Israel, where she 
attended a conference on "Israel and Austria: 50 years of diplomatic 
relations." The Foreign Minister also traveled to the Palestinian 
territories and Jordan, and met with top Middle East politicians 
including Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud 
Abbas and her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni. 
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik was received by her 
Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni on Sunday -- the third day of her 
Middle East tour. Livni, answering questions by journalists, denied 
her country was interested in a standstill in the Middle East, 
liberal daily Der Standard reports, like all major Austrian media. 
Likewise, Plassnik stressed the "positive impulse sent out by 
Israel. Premier Ehud Olmert's speech a few days ago has given rise 
to new hope. It is an outstretched hand and it should be taken," the 
Minister said. In Gaza on Saturday, Plassnik had a meeting with 
Palestinian President Abbas. She stressed that her visit was "a 
deliberate sign of encouragement and recognition of his work," the 
Standard quotes from a statement by her ministry in Vienna. 
According to Austrian Press Agency APA, Plassnik argued: "The 
Palestinian people are justified in expecting their political 
leadership to work together instead of acting against each other. 
Many elements for the revival of the peace process are on the table. 
The goal is now to get a dialogue going between the two sides," so 
that there could be hope for a new start to the political process." 
A report in centrist daily Die Presse says on her trip, Plassnik had 
the "chance to see for herself, how caught up in a deadlock the 
Israeli-Palestinian relations are." 
 
 
Annan Urges Iraq Conference 
 
¶5. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is calling for an international 
conference on Iraq, arguing that the situation there has become 
"much worse" than a civil war. In an interview with the BBC, Annan 
compared the level of violence, the number of casualties, the 
bitterness and the way forces in Iraq are now fighting each other, 
with the civil war in Lebanon in the 1970s and 80s, stressing that 
in his view the developments in Iraq were even more critical. 
The Iraqi government has dismissed the UN Secretary General's 
proposal for an international meeting to address the issue. 
In an interview with the BBC, UN Secretary Kofi Annan warned that 
Iraq is "in the grip of civil war," and that life for the average 
Iraqi is now worse than under the regime of former Iraqi dictator 
Saddam Hussein. He also admitted that the failure to prevent the 
US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major blow to the UN - one 
from which the organization is only beginning to recover, ORF radio 
early morning news Morgenjournal reports. "It was extremely 
difficult, because I really believed that we could have stopped the 
war, and that if we had worked a bit harder, given the inspectors a 
bit more time, we could have (done so). I was also concerned that 
for the US and its coalition to go to war without the consent of the 
(UN Security) Council in that particular region, which has always 
been extremely controversial, would be very difficult and divisive," 
ORF radio quotes Annan. 
Meanwhile, mass-circulation tabloid Oesterreich writes that a US 
pullout from Iraq could trigger a military response from Iraq's 
neighbors. US President George Bush and Iraqi Premier Nuri Al-Maliki 
had agreed in their meeting last week that a partitioning of Iraq 
into semi-autonomous regions has to be avoided at all costs, as such 
a development would likely lead to a break-up of the country. Saudi 
Arabia and Turkey have already threatened massive military 
interventions: The Turkish army would invade Iraq, should the 
Kurdish north declare independence, and Saudi Arabia has warned it 
would also launch a massive intervention in case of a US pullout, in 
order to prevent the Shiite militias from killing the Iraqi Sunnis, 
Oesterreich says. Likewise, Syria, too, could intervene by expanding 
its control over the predominately Sunnite western part of Iraq. 
 
 
Litvinenko Contact to Spill the Beans 
 
¶6. Mario Scaramella, a contact of the Russian ex-spy Alexander 
Litvinenko who died of polonium poisoning in November, has said he 
will disclose the "names of politicians and journalists" who, 
allegedly, used to be actively working for the former USSR4s 
intelligence services. In addition, the FBI is meanwhile also said 
to be looking into the case. 
Mass-circulation daily Kurier in a front-page report writes about an 
alleged connection between the poisoning of Russian ex-spy Alexander 
Litvinenko and Russian oil corporation Yukos. The FBI is questioning 
a former agent for the KGB, who is suspected of having forwarded 
documents suggesing a connection between the murder of Litvinenko 
and the break-up of Yukos. 
 
Meanwhile, security affairs writer for centrist daily Die Presse 
Burkard Bischof comments that with regard to the Litvienko case, 
"speculations concerning the backgroud of his poisoning are running 
wild. (...) The former spy Litvinenko must have been researching on 
many fronts. After all, he was allegedly poisoned because a) he was 
about to clear up the Anna Politkovskaya murder case; and b) the 
machinations around the annihilation of the Yukos conglomerate." 
 
 
Chavez Wins Venezuela Vote 
 
¶7. President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has won a third term in 
office, with a landslide victory over his nearest rival. With almost 
80 percent of the ballots counted in the presidential election, 
Chavez has secured more than 60% of the vote, officials said. His 
main opposition rival, Manuel Rosales, has admitted defeat. 
ORF radio early morning news Morgenjournal reports on the landslide 
victory of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the country's 
presidential elections. Chavez told a cheering crowd in the capital 
Caracas that the poll had been a triumph for his Bolivarian 
revolution. ORF online news meanwhile argues that Chavez' 
"overwhelming election victory" could "further boost the Venezuelan 
President's efforts at forming a South American pact to counter US 
influence in the region." 
 
 
Israel Responsible for Middle East Impasse, Carter Says 
 
¶8. Israel is greatly to blame for the lack of peace with the 
Palestinians, said former US President Jimmy Carter in an interview 
with an Austrian daily on Saturday. 
In an interview with centrist daily Die Presse on December 3, former 
US President Jimmy Carter argued that the Israelis had broken key UN 
resolutions and the international "roadmap" by occupying Arab lands 
and suppressing the Palestinians. Furthermore, in the United States 
no-one criticized Israel, Carter complained. It was not even 
"acceptable to say you have a balanced opinion in the Middle East 
conflict, or to support the Palestinians' right to their land and 
demand that Israel withdraw from the occupied territories," the 
daily quotes the ex-President. In the US, the supporters of Israel 
had a "very influential role in the political process," said Carter, 
who was commenting on his own new book "Palestine: Peace Not 
Apartheid." He stressed that "former US governments had shown by 
word and deed that they were concerned about peace for Israel, but 
also peace and justice for the Palestinians." That had been the case 
with his own administration and the following ones under Ronald 
Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. But it was "not like 
that any more." In the Arab world there was the "impression that the 
present US administration did not spare a thought for the 
Palestinians," Carter told the Presse, and pointed out that it was 
not necessary to be against Israel to support the right of the 
Palestinians to their own land and a life in peace. In any case, the 
Bush government had not made any efforts, he complained: "In the 
past six years there has not been a single day of peace talks 
between Israel and the Palestinians. And of course, the whole world 
expected such talks to be initiated by the United States." 
McCaw