Press Release

The Historical Commission held its constituent session on 26 November 1998. A consensus was reached on the rules of procedure, and the Commission's approach for the coming months was agreed upon. Before that, an intensive exchange of views took place on the general framework of the Commission's work. In particular, the following two points were made:

1) The Commission understands that all relevant public archives will be made accessible to it. This includes - apart from the Austrian State Archives - inter alia provincial archives, archives of local communities, municipal archives, archives kept by official professional organisations and archives kept by social security institutions. If necessary, the appropriate statutory, including constitutional, foundations will have to be created.

As regards the inspection of foreign archives, support from the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs is expected.

Further, the Commission expects institutions close to the government such as organisations representing professional and other interests or political parties and, lastly, all private documentation services, especially business companies, to make documents relevant to the Commission's work available to the latter.

Finally, it is suggested that a statutory provision be enacted to prohibit the destruction of relevant material, wherever in Austria it may be.

2) The Commission is of the opinion that the extensive work programme cannot be accomplished without calling in permanent experts, who should take part in the Commission's regular sessions.

The Commission will meet for its next session before the end of this year in order to start the elaboration of its programme. This will be ready by early March 1999.

Dr. Bertrand Perz will represent the Commission at the conference on "Nazi Assets" in Washington D.C. next week.

sgd. Jabloner