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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 23, 2007 
 
 
Darabos Met With Eurofighter Boss 
 
¶1. Austrian Defense Minister Norbert Darabos met with Eurofighter 
boss Aloysius Rauen to discuss the contract to purchase 18 jets for 
the Austrian armed forces. The time and place of the meeting was 
kept secret. It is believed that the talks aimed at finding ways to 
reduce the cost  of the aircraft. On Wednesday, the first of the 18 
Eurofighter jets for the Austrian military carried out its maiden 
flight at the EADS plant in Bavaria. The first jets are due to be 
delivered in June. 
Reporting like all major Austrian media on the Eurofighter deal, 
semi-official daily Wiener Zeitung writes that Chancellor Alfred 
Gusenbauer has dismissed criticism of his Defense Minister, 
stressing that the ministry's task force on the issue had done 
sufficient preparatory work for Norbert Darabos to be able to hold 
"relevant talks " with Eurofighter boss Aloysius Rauen. With regard 
to the missing software licenses, the Chancellor blamed the previous 
government for "unduly delaying the decision on the licenses." He is 
nonetheless confident that Darabos will "manage brilliantly," 
despite the fact that this oversight had not made Austria's position 
any easier, Gusenbauer said. Meanwhile, according to independent 
provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten, the parliamentary 
investigative committee looking into the Eurofighter deal says some 
of its findings suggest clandestine party funding in connection with 
the interceptor purchase. The daily cites as example a press 
conference held at the Defense Ministry in 2002, for which Gernot 
Rumpold's PR company charged  96,000 - a sum the Austrian Public 
Relations Association has described as "unthinkable under normal 
circumstances." 
 
 
State Prosecutors Investigating Grasser 
 
¶2. A dossier compiled by the financial market supervisory body FMA 
and the Austrian Central Bank OeNB at the request of former Finance 
Minister Karl-Heinz Grasser in connection with the affair over 
Austrian bank Bawag could now have repercussions for Grasser. The 
Federal Prosecutor's Office has confirmed it has launched an 
investigation into suspected of abuse of office by the former 
Minister. The reason: Grasser's office sent out a questionnaire to 
the FMA and the OeNB, allegedly with the aim of creating a 
connection between the scandal-ridden bank, the SPOe and the Union 
Association OeGB. Grasser has dismissed the allegations. 
 
 
 
Interview with Ursula Plassnik 
 
¶3. In an interview with an Austrian daily on the occasion of 50 
years of the European Union, Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula 
Plassnik dismissed views "discrediting Austrians in general as 
notoriously anti-EU." The Austrian people are "quite aware that they 
are well off with the EU," she stressed. 
In an interview with liberal daily Der Standard, Austrian Foreign 
Minister Ursula Plassnik, pointing to periodic Eurobarometer 
surveys, emphasized that Austrian support for the EU is "growing 
slowly, but constantly. We should stop getting ourselves into a bad 
mood with such whining," she stressed. It is a fact that Austria, 
"because of its location in the center of the European Continent, 
has profited enormously. Virtually every province these days can 
rely on entirely new and positive relations with Austria's 
neighboring states." Nevertheless, she wants Austrians to become 
better "EU friends," Plassnik said. On the missile defense system 
the US is planning to set up in Poland and the Czech Republic, the 
Minister said that it "would be wrong not to consider the citizens' 
concerns" regarding the plan, and that she has noted an "enormous 
lack of information and clarity with regard to the issue, which 
needs to be addressed in a calm manner." Europe is "working on a 
joint defense and security identity, so we should deal with the 
issue carefully and responsibly. I am confident we will succeed 
here." 
 
 
Interview with Ambassador Gray 
 
¶4. The United States Ambassador to the European Union Boyden Gray 
gave an interview to a leading Austrian daily. Ambassador Gray 
discussed 50 years of the EU, transatlantic relations, and present 
and future opportunities and challenges for US-EU relations. No one, 
he stressed, had benefited more from the European Union than the 
United States. 
In an interview with centrist daily Die Presse, US Ambassador to the 
EU Boyden Gray says the US is considering the EU a "great success. 
No one has profited more from the EU than we did, at least 
economically. We have the strongest trade relations in history and 
we're trying to expand them further. The EU is our strongest ally, 
apart from a few differences of opinion. Our relationship is very 
healthy, and has never been stronger." Although US perception of the 
EU has changed, "most Americans and their Congressmen and Senators 
are not really aware of EU investments in the US. There is no 
recognition for how many US jobs have been created with European 
money." However, the "strength of US-EU relations is simultaneously 
its weakness: Things that run smoothly do not make headline news," 
Ambassador Gray reasons. Militarily, he continues, "more EU 
resources would be an asset for the EU, for NATO and for the US. In 
Kosovo, for example, everyone would benefit from a stronger European 
presence. And, it would not be considered competition for NATO." The 
EU Constitution, the Ambassador suggests, "has mostly symbolic 
value. It is less important than completing the EU internal market, 
as for example regarding the free flow of people, following 
enlargement. This could easily take up to ten years." Regarding 
Turkey, Ambassador Gray stated in his opinion "membership will 
happen in time." 
 
 
A Discussion on Missile Defense 
 
¶5. The security affairs writer of an Austrian daily reports on a 
"unilateral discussion" of the controversial missile defense system 
the US is planning to set up in Poland and the Czech Republic. 
Security affairs writer for centrist daily Die Presse Burkhard 
Bischof reports on a panel discussion at the Renner Institute about 
the planned US missile defense system in Europe. While a Czech 
activist complained his country's TV stations never invited 
opponents of the project, the Renner Institute did the opposite by 
only inviting panelists who are against the defense shield, Bischof 
says. Consequently, although the audience was presented with a 
number of good arguments against the US plans, the event did not 
provide for a lively and controversial debate of the issue, given 
the fact that no supporters were present. It was a one-sided 
discussion, according to the security affairs writer. Bischof quotes 
one of the panelists, Roman Kuzniar, formerly the head of the Polish 
Foreign Ministry's planning bureau, as arguing the missile defense 
system reflected the Bush administration's "tendency to militarize 
international relations." US defense policy was not defensive, but 
offensive, Kuzniar said, and added that the "true objective of the 
defense shield is to make the US immune to retaliatory strikes. But 
if the Americans are immune in such a way, it would become even 
easier for them to intervene all over the world." 
 
 
 
UN Secretary General Shaken by Blast--but a "Ray of Hope" 
 
¶6. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon was shaken by a blast during a 
news conference in Baghdad, when an explosion about 50 meters away 
rocked the building in which he was meeting with the Iraqi Prime 
Minister. The President of the UN Security Council has condemned the 
attack, stressing the UNSC members are "dismayed, and strongly 
condemn the abhorrent terrorist attack on the Iraqi Prime Minister's 
office where the Secretary General participated in a joint press 
conference." 
Meanwhile, reporting on Premier Al-Maliki and the government's 
decision to push for a dialogue with Iraqi insurgents, independent 
provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten writes that the Iraqi Prime 
Minister's "handshake with a Shiite leader who was recently released 
from jail, and the contacts with the national Sunni resistance could 
succeed in marginalizing al Qaeda. There is a "ray of hope in 
Baghdad," the daily says. Indeed, there are signs some Iraqi 
insurgent groups are getting increasingly battle-weary. Their prime 
motive was fighting against the US occupation, but now they appear 
to be concluding it might be easier to get rid of the foreign troops 
though political means rather than with violence. The Iraqi Premier, 
who urgently needs some political success to counter the growing 
distrust of both Americans and his own people, has started 
developing contacts behind the scenes with the old arch-enemies of 
the Shiites and Kurds: the Sunni Baathists in Iraq and in Jordanian 
exile, who lost both their jobs and their prestige with the toppling 
of Saddam Hussein. And while initially these Sunni insurgent groups 
cooperated with the Islamists, they are now distancing themselves 
very clearly from the predominantly non-Iraqi terrorists, the daily 
says. 
 
 
UNSC to Vote on Iran 
 
¶7. The permanent members of the United Nations Security Council say 
they will vote Saturday on imposing tougher sanctions on Iran over 
its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Amendments to the 
resolution proposed by South Africa have mostly been rejected. The 
draft would ban all exports of weapons and add 28 people to a list 
whose assets abroad are frozen. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
has meanwhile announced he will present new proposals in connection 
with the issue. 
Kilner