Dr. Erhard Busek
Chairman of the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe
Dr. Erhard Busek was born in Vienna, Austria, on March 25, 1941. He received his law degree from the University of Vienna in 1963. During his studies, he also served as Chairman of the Austrian Youth Council.
He began his professional career in 1964 as legal adviser to the association of the parliamentarians of the Austrian People’s Party. He then served as Secretary General of the Austrian Federation for Trade and Commerce (1968-1975). In 1975 he was appointed Secretary General of the Austrian People’s Party and was elected Member of Parliament later that year. Erhard Busek gained additional experience in administration between 1968-1976 while with a publishing firm in the economic field. In 1976 Mr. Busek entered municipal politics. He was City Councilor and was elected Deputy-Mayor of Vienna in 1978, a position he held until 1987. He was appointed Minister for Science and Research in April 1989. From 1994 until May 1995 Dr. Busek was Minister for Education. He was elected Chairman of the Austrian People’s Party in 1991 and served as Vice-Chancellor of Austria from 1991 to 1995. In early 2000 Dr. Erhard Busek was appointed as Special Representative of the Austrian Government on EU-Enlargement. He served in that position until December 2001.
Mr. Busek has delivered many lectures on domestic and foreign topics and has participated in many conferences in Austria and abroad. He is Dr. hc. of the Universities of Krakow, of Bratislava, of Brasov and Czernowitz, of Liberec and of Webster-St. Louis University Vienna. He is Rector of the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Visiting Professor at Duke University, NC, USA, and at the University of Agriculture in Vienna. He is also teaching at the University Innsbruck and the University of Vienna. In addition his lectures are planned to be involved in the teaching programme of the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien) and the University Belgrade, Serbia, too.
Since January 2002 Mr. Busek serves as Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. Furthermore he is the Coordinator of the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI); Chairman of the “Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe” and President of the European Forum Alpbach.
He also has received awards and decorations from Poland, Hungary, Italy, Bulgaria, Liechtenstein, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovenia. He is Honourer Senator of the Medical University of Innsbruck and is laureate of the Corvinus-Price of the "Europa Institut Budapest".