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| Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten | |
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 20 November 1920; 104 years ago (1920-11-20) |
| Preceding agency | |
| Jurisdiction | Government of Austria |
| Status | Highestfederalauthority |
| Headquarters | Minoritenplatz,Innere Stadt,Vienna |
| Annual budget | €508 million(2019)[1] |
| Minister responsible | |
| Agency executive |
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| Website | www |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of Austria |
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TheMinistry for European and International Affairs (German:Bundesministerium für europäische und internationale Angelegenheiten, abbreviated BMEIA, colloquiallyAußenministerium) is thegovernment ministry ofAustria responsible fordiplomatic missions andimmigration, the administration offoreign policy, and the maintenance of the country's relations withinternational organisations, especially theEuropean Union. It oversees the Austrian embassies, consular representatives and other emissaries, and administers the naturalisation process and handles citizenship questions along with theInterior Ministry.
On 1 March 2007 the former Federal Ministry for External Affairs (Bundesministerium für auswärtige Angelegenheiten, BMaA) was renamed "Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs" which, as of 1 March 2014, changed to "Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs". It is responsible for a variety of matters concerning Austria's foreign policy and relations, including matters ofpublic international law,treaties and Austria's international representation in receiving states as well as to international organisations. It grants support for Austrian citizens staying or living abroad and foreign aid bymutual legal assistance treaties.
The ministry is also concerned witheconomic integration,European Union law, the Austrian relations toCentral and Eastern Europe and theCommonwealth of Independent States (CIS), as well asdevelopment aid. It is responsible for matters of theInternational Atomic Energy Agency with its seat in Vienna, theUnited Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and theInternational Red Cross. TheDiplomatic Academy of Vienna, formerly part of the ministry, since 1996 forms an autonomous organisation.
The history of international diplomacy is closely connected to Vienna. Diplomats were for the first time classified as such at theCongress of Vienna in 1815. Furthermore, theUnited Nations' conferences which led to theVienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and theVienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963) were both held in Austria's capital city.
The year 1720 is considered to be the origin of an independent Austrian diplomatic service, which was when EmperorCharles VI assigned the administration of foreign relations of theHabsburg monarchy to a separate minister. For about 200 years, the external relations of theAustrian Empire proclaimed in 1804 and succeedingAustria-Hungary remained themonarch's prerogative and his assigned minister not accountable to theImperial Council nor theDiet of Hungary. From 1809 until theRevolutions of 1848, the office of the Austrian Foreign Minister was shaped by PrinceKlemens von Metternich. Upon theAustro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, theImperial and Royal (k. u. k.)Foreign Ministry of Austria-Hungary was one three common ministries responsible for both parts of thereal union. In 1882 Foreign MinisterCount Gustav Kálnoky forged theTriple Alliance with theGerman Empire and theKingdom of Italy, which, however, could not arrest the proceeding Austrian isolation nor internalnationalist unrest. During theJuly Crisis of 1914, MinisterCount Leopold Berchtold, urged by Chief of StaffCount Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, issued the fatal ultimatum toSerbia, followed by the declaration of war a few days later.
AfterWorld War I and the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, foreign affairs were attended to by the Federal Chancellery. It was not before 1959 that a separate Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs (German:Bundesministerium für auswärtige Angelegenheiten orBMaA) was established.
With the government under Federal Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, the former BMaA was renamed "Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs" in 2007 to better reflect and express "the interconnection, networking, partnership and solidarity characterising Austria's international relations", as former Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik put it. The old name had "rather conveyed the additional nuance of a demarcation".
As part of the amendment to the Federal Ministries Act and the swearing-in ofSebastian Kurz as Foreign Minister on 16 December 2013, the responsibilities of the formerState Secretariat for Integration were transferred to the Foreign Ministry. Effective March 1, 2014, it was therefore renamed "Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs".
On 29 January 2020, it was renamed "Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs",[2] and Integration was placed under the ministry ofSusanne Raab.[3]
Media related toMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Austria at Wikimedia Commons
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