AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: March 23, 2007

UNCLAS VIENNA 000756

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/AGS, INR/EU, AND EUR/PPD FOR YVETTE SAINT-ANDRE

OSD FOR COMMANDER CHAFFEE

WHITEHOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE


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