Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05VIENNA3026
2005-09-12 11:12:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Vienna
Cable title:
Austria Plans to Amend General Settlement Fund
how-toThis record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
UNCLAS VIENNA 003026
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Austria Plans to Amend General Settlement Fund
Law
UNCLAS VIENNA 003026
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Austria Plans to Amend General Settlement Fund
Law
1. MFA's International Law Division shared with us a
draft amendment to the General Settlement Fund (GSF) Law.
The purpose is to facilitate early payments by the GSF to
Holocaust victims as soon as legal peace exists. It also
would extend the filing period for the Arbitration Panel
on in-rem restitution from end of 2004 to end of 2006.
All five parties represented in parliament unanimously
submitted the bill to the plenary on July 7. The
constitutional committee will take up action next, with
final passage expected in September or October. The GSF
amendment is part of a legislative package; two other
bills concern the establishment of a Scholarship Fund and
a Future Fund to distribute leftover money from the
Reconciliation Fund.
2. Parliamentary President (and ex-officio GSF Chairman)
Andreas Khol has stressed that he hopes to issue advance
payments to applicants whose claims have already been
processed by the GSF (roughly 8,000 out of nearly 20,000
total) by the end of 2005, assuming legal peace exists.
An appendix stipulates a minimum of USD 500 for these
advance payments. Further, the bill eliminates the
stipulation that, in the equity-based process, payments
would go to households, and instead provides for payments
to individuals. The GoA argues that payments to
households have proven impractical, leading to
complications in the equity-based process. In many
cases, a "household" is composed of people living in
different parts of the world who filed applications
independently. BROWN
SIPDIS
STATE FOR EUR/OHI AND EUR/AGS
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNAR PHUM PGOV AU
SUBJECT: Austria Plans to Amend General Settlement Fund
Law
1. MFA's International Law Division shared with us a
draft amendment to the General Settlement Fund (GSF) Law.
The purpose is to facilitate early payments by the GSF to
Holocaust victims as soon as legal peace exists. It also
would extend the filing period for the Arbitration Panel
on in-rem restitution from end of 2004 to end of 2006.
All five parties represented in parliament unanimously
submitted the bill to the plenary on July 7. The
constitutional committee will take up action next, with
final passage expected in September or October. The GSF
amendment is part of a legislative package; two other
bills concern the establishment of a Scholarship Fund and
a Future Fund to distribute leftover money from the
Reconciliation Fund.
2. Parliamentary President (and ex-officio GSF Chairman)
Andreas Khol has stressed that he hopes to issue advance
payments to applicants whose claims have already been
processed by the GSF (roughly 8,000 out of nearly 20,000
total) by the end of 2005, assuming legal peace exists.
An appendix stipulates a minimum of USD 500 for these
advance payments. Further, the bill eliminates the
stipulation that, in the equity-based process, payments
would go to households, and instead provides for payments
to individuals. The GoA argues that payments to
households have proven impractical, leading to
complications in the equity-based process. In many
cases, a "household" is composed of people living in
different parts of the world who filed applications
independently. BROWN