LH Mikl-Leitner: Europe needs the Europe Forum's power to shape and change more than ever before
"Facing Challenges - Embracing Visions" is the motto of this year's Wachau European Forum, which will take place at Göttweig Abbey from 11 to 13 June. Today, Wednesday, Governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner and the new President of the European Forum, Michael Linhart, gave a preview of the programme on the "Göttweiger Berg".
The Governor began by talking about the new personnel line-up at the Europa Forum: Michael Linhart has taken over the office of President from Martin Eichtinger, while Benedikt Schmidinger succeeds Theresa Edtstadler-Kulhanek as Managing Director. With Linhart, "a high-calibre personality" who has proven himself over decades, including as ambassador in Paris and Berlin and as Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, is taking over, said the Governor. Together with the new Managing Director, the aim now is to reorganise the Europa Forum, expand the target group and, above all, get young people interested in Europe. "Europe needs the creative and transformative power of the Europa-Forum Wachau now more than ever," emphasised Mikl-Leitner. Europe is "at a turning point", she said, referring to Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and the new world order, in which Europe is at risk of being crushed between the USA and China. And Donald Trump's policies also make it necessary to break new ground in terms of both economic policy and defence policy.
"Europe must be able to defend itself - politically, economically and militarily", stated the Governor: "More than ever, our defence capability is the basis for peace and freedom in Europe." Since 2022, defence spending in the EU has risen by more than 30 percent, said Mikl-Leitner: "But we need to invest better, smarter, together and more European." She therefore called for better coordination of cooperation in procurement: "If we upgrade in the area of defence, there must also be added value for Europe in terms of economic policy."
However, this also requires economic strength, the Governor added. "Defence policy is also economic policy," said Mikl-Leitner, adding that we must also be competitive in order to be able to defend ourselves. In this context, she also called for "more speed in reducing bureaucracy at European level", for example according to the "one in, one out" principle, according to which an old regulation should be abolished for every new one. "Europe must move from talk to action," she demanded.
He accepts this task "with great pleasure", said the new President of the Europa-Forum, Michael Linhart. He was convinced that the Europa-Forum Wachau was "a forum for dialogue that is well established in Europe and internationally", but also had potential for growth. He also addressed Russia's war of aggression and the new power strategies of the major powers, saying that these are "complex challenges for which Europe must find the right answers". Europe must "not be the driven party", but must "actively and confidently contribute and help shape the changes". The Europa Forum could position itself "even more strongly as a bridge builder between politics, business and diplomacy", said Linhart.
It was also particularly important to him to "involve young people even more in the European dialogue process", Linhart emphasised: "It is important to bring Europe to young people." The aim is therefore to "become broader, more digital and younger overall", for example by developing a Europa-Forum Wachau app, he announced.
Looking ahead to this year's programme, Linhart referred to the participation of Federal Chancellor Christian Stocker, Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger and European Affairs Minister Claudia Plakolm, among others. Economics Minister Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer will take part in the Business Salon, which will be moderated by Christian Wehrschütz. Science Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner is also expected in Göttweig. Former Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and former Health Minister Hermann Gröhe will be coming from Germany. Another speaker will be the philosopher Peter Sloterdijk.
