Vienna - Official Seat of International Organisations & Institutions

Vienna is one of the most important headquarters of international organisations. Beside New York and Geneva, Vienna is the third headquarters of the Secretariat of the United Nations (UN). International organisations employ approx. 4,800 people, of whom 1,349 are Austrians, and contribute to the Austrian economy with an annual expenditure of some EUR 470 million (as of the beginning of 2002).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, Director-General Mohamed El-Baradei) was the first of the international organisations to be based in Vienna and, with its 2,134 employees, is still the largest. Over the past few years, the IAEA has shifted its emphasis from the promotion of atomic energy to nuclear safety and the prevention of the improper use of fissile material.

In the course of the reforms of the United Nations, in 1997 Vienna became a major centre of all UN efforts aimed at combating crime, drug abuse and terrorism. As a result, the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), renamed the ODC/Office on Drugs and Crime in autumn 2002, was set up in Vienna. Since 2002 it has been headed by Antonio Maria Costa as Executive Director, who at the same time holds the offices of Under-Secretary-General and Director-General of the UNOV (United Nations Office at Vienna). The ODC consists of the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) and the Centre for International Crime Prevention (CICP).

The UNOV Secretariat unit (United Nations Office at Vienna) gives administrative support to various UN bodies and institutions, and is responsible for conference planning and interpretation services for more than 2,000 conferences and meetings a year as well as for the security services at the Vienna International Centre (VIC). UNOV also includes the Office for Outer Space Affairs (OOSA), the Division of Administrative and Common Services (DACS) and the United Nations Information Service (UNIS). Secretariat units which report to other Secretariat entities include the United Nations Commission on International Trade (UNCITRAL) and the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR). Apart from the above-mentioned organisations of the UN family, the Vienna International Centre (VIC) also houses the branch-office of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the regional bureau of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the Secretariat of the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River.

Another Vienna-based organisation is the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), headed by Carlos Alfredo Magariños. This organisation was set up in 1966 and has become leaner following reforms in the last few years. UNIDO is the only organisation within the UN system to provide support for industrialisation in Third World countries and in the Central and Eastern European transition countries through technical assistance, consultation and mediation as well as research and study programmes aimed at the most eco-friendly industrialisation on the one hand, and through the promotion of industrial co-operation between developing and industrialised countries on the other.

Headed by Executive Secretary Wolfgang Hoffman, the Preparatory Commission with its Provisional Technical Secretariat of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) to which a sophisticated data centre is attached, has been operative in Vienna since 1997. In the same year, the global successor to COCOM, the Secretariat of the Wassenaar Arrangement on export controls for conventional arms and dual-use goods and technologies, started operating in Vienna.

The Vienna International Centre (VIC), which was opened in 1979, houses all of the organisations mentioned above except for the Secretariat of the Wassenaar Arrangement. Austria handed the VIC over to the international organisations for a peppercorn rent.

The OSCE is a co-operative security organisation with a very comprehensive mandate addressing security-related issues including stability, arms control, human and minority rights, democratisation in the broadest sense and economic as well as environmental security. It is the only pan-European security forum in which Russia participates on an equal status. Its distinguishing characteristic is its wide membership, comprising 56participating states, including all European countries and the USA, Canada, and the Central Asian states. The term co-operative means that the OSCE does not apply coercive measures, but must seek the host country's agreement before becoming active in the event of crisis or conflict.

In the past decade, the OSCE has become a major instrument for early warning, conflict prevention, non-military crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. Moreover, the OSCE constitutes an important forum for arms control and disarmament in the field of conventional arms.

Regions, in which the OSCE maintains field missions:

Western Balkans
Eastern Europe
Central Asia

The OSCE chair is assumed at regular intervals by one member state which then plays an important role in managing the Organization’s work and in its external representation. The foreign minister of the country holding the chair holds the office of Chairman-in-Office (CiO). The fact that decision-making within the OSCE requires a consensus among all 56 participating states represents a particular diplomatic challenge for the chair, which is currently held by Lithuania . In 2000 Austria chaired the OSCE.

The OSCE Secretariat, under the direction of the Secretary General (since 2011 Lambero Zannier) is the organisational backbone and provides support for the Chair's activities. It is based in Vienna, assisted by an office in Prague.

Besides, the OSCE is equipped with a number of instruments for the fulfilment of its tasks. The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), headed since 2008 by the Slovenian diplomat Janez Lenarcic, is located in Warsaw and seeks to promote democratic elections, particularly by election monitoring, and provides practical support aimed at strengthening democratic institutions under the rule of law and fostering civil society structures. The office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities, held by Knut Vollebaeck from Norway, is located in The Hague and seeks to identify and resolve ethnic tensions at the earliest possible stage. The office of OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, based in Vienna and currently held by Dunja Mijatovic from Bosnia-Herzegovina was established to monitor compliance with this important fundamental right.

A central instrument for conflict prevention, civil crisis management and consolidation of peace are the Long Term Missions. The OSCE has established 17 such field activities, involving approximately 2200 international and local staff members in the Balkans and the CIS (inter alia in the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia). The Chairman-in-Office may appoint Personal Representatives who use their political weight to assist in conflict management in the event of an imminent crisis.

The majority of the international experts active in OSCE field missions are seconded to the OSCE by participating states. Information on current job vacancies in OSCE field missions and details of the application procedure can be accessed online. 

The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), founded in Baghdad in 1960, has been based in Vienna since 1965. This intergovernmental organisation is dedicated to co-ordinating its member countries’ oil producing policies, achieving fair and stable prices for petroleum-producing countries and to assuring reliable and cost-efficient economic supplies to consumer countries. The organisation consists of the Conference of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the Governors’ Council and the Secretariat, headed by the Secretary General (Dr. Alvaro Silva Calderón) who is appointed by the Conference. The OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), established by the OPEC Member Countries in January 1976 is also based in Vienna. The OPEC Fund (Director-General Y. Seyyid Abdulai), which is financed through voluntary contributions derived from the member countries’ oil revenues, seeks to contribute to the development of Third World countries by offering loans and grants to non-OPEC developing countries and to international development agencies.

The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia (Director Beate Winkler) was established in 1997 by a EU Council regulation and took up office in Vienna in 1998. It has been mandated with providing the European Union and its Member States with objective and comparable information on racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic phenomena discernible at the European level. The Racism and Xenophobia European Network (RAXEN) was established to support the Monitoring Centre in the tasks generally related to the collection and provision of data.

A further step towards strengthening Vienna’s position as an official seat of international organisations was taken in 2002, when the liaison office of the Hague Code of Conduct against the Proliferation of Ballistic Missiles (HCOC) moved into its office on the premises of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

In December 2002 the European Space Agency (ESA) decided to establish the newly founded European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna.

Established in 2006, the Energy Community Secretariat accounts for the youngest international organization in Vienna. The Parties to the Treaty establishing the Energy Community are the European Union, on the one hand, and seven Contracting Parties, namely, Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. With an ultimate aim to extend the EU's internal energy market to the South East Europe, the Energy Community strives to create a stable and uniform regulatory market framework capable of attracting investment, to enhance security of supply, to improve the environmental situation and to stimulate competition.

Apart from international organisations, a number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other institutions with sui generis status, such as the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), the Vienna Institute for Development and Co-operation and the International Press Institute are also located in Vienna.

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