Federal Chancellery (03/15/2010)

Austria will contribute 6 million Euros to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation to ensure the preservation of the former concentration camp as a memorial. This was the official message conveyed by Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger to his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski in Warsaw on March 3, 2010. "This is a duty arising from our history," underlined Spindelegger at a joint press conference.

Spindelegger is Austria's first Foreign Minister paying an official visit to Warsaw after Poland's accession to the EU in May 2004. The two ministers had, however, communicated at the EU level before their bilateral meeting. Cooperation between the two countries was "very good," stated Spindelegger. The Foreign Minister reaffirmed Austria's ambitions to focus activities in the year 2010 on bringing the Western Balkan states closer to the European Union.