On the 7th of March 2017, another discussion with HE Mr Alexander Grubmayr, Ambassador of the Republic of Austria to the Czech Republic, concerning the current bilateral relations between Austria and the Czech Republic in their historical context, the mission of the Austrian Ambassador and the tasks carried out by the Austrian Embassy was held. This was the first meeting with the Austrian Ambassador at the Embassy of Austria this year.
A formal introduction was followed by a speech from HE Alexander Grubmayr. Ambassador, in which the bilateral relations of our countries was discussed and the warmth of the relations was noted as being among the best historical relations for the two countries. He also spoke about his life as an Ambassador, and the current economic situation in Austria.
The Ambassador’s mission is, as is standard, to meet with ministers of the Czech government and discuss relations, but also to cooperate on a regional level as with South-Czechia, South-Moravia and the regions of Vysočina and Lower Austria.
The following discussion concerned atomic energy, which in the past had caused difficulties between the Czech Republic and Austria, mainly because of the location of a nuclear power plant in Temelín, Czech Republic. Through this, we discussed how much our relations have shifted, in a positive way, in the negotiation processes with nuclear expert teams. Moreover, we went on to discuss cooperation in renewable resources of energy.
In the economic field, a growing economical surplus has been maintained, where we can see that Czech exports grew by 1,9% in 2016 and in Austria by 1,3%.
The last point of this discussion concerned migration in Europe. Ambassador Grubmayr introduced some points representing the standpoints of the government of Austria in cooperation with states from Africa (mainly with states from the North and North-west of Africa). Also noted were new legal measures which seek to support migrants financially and secure their rights, thus providing better and more successful integration into Austrian society and forestall any right to accept foreign monies and funds or assistance countries other than Austria, or outside of the European Union. In the Ambassador’s opinion, the outlooks toward the immigration crisis between the Czech Republic and Austria will come to be more and more similar in the future.
