Foreign Cultural Policy Concept

International Cooperation is one of the three priorities formulated in the Foreign Cultural Policy Concept of the Federal Ministry for European and International Cooperation (FMEIA) 2011. Austria´s international cultural cooperation aims at offering sustainable contributions to building worldwide trust and peace by launching initiatives to promote the intercultural as well as inter-religious dialogue. Additionally it promotes the European integration by adhering to the principle of „united and yet diverse”. Strategies to reach the goals of Austrian cultural foreign policy are:

• Maintaining and developing efficient networks of Austrian cultural institutions abroad.
• Implementing and supporting projects to promote the inter-religious and intercultural dialog between different cultures at home and abroad.
• Incorporating and implementing Austrian cultural interests in(to) the decisionmaking processes of the EU and those of international organizations (especially the UNESCO) and promoting cultural initiatives of the EU and those of international organizations (especially of the UNESCO) in Austria.

The FMEIA’s network of international cultural policy includes a total of 82 embassies, 30 Cultural Fora, 11 consulates general, 61 Austria libraries, 9 Austria Institutes as well as special offices in Lviv, Sarajevo and Washington generating annually more than 5.000 projects. The budget allocated to international cultural cooperation in the reporting period averaged USD 8,5 million annually. Projects include, e.g.:

• The translation project TRADUKI is a successful, large-scale project concentrating on the translation of books including children’s and youth’s literature from German into the languages of South-East Europe and vice versa, in which the FMEIA participates. By now the TRADUKI network comprises 13 countries and 10 languages.
• CULTURE MATTERS - UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the South East of Europe - is an Austrian initiative to support the EU-integration of all South East European countries through increased cultural cooperation.

2009 marked the years of the 140th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Austria, 2011 the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of Austria. The jubilees provided an opportunity to further deepen the cultural exchange between the countries.