Cultural Conventions

Austria has signed conventions on cultural co-operation with a total of 25 states, including eight EU member states. In addition to these cultural conventions, further conventions on co-operation in the scientific and technical fields have been signed with twelve states. Informal co-operation in the fields of culture and science has developed with six partner states without requiring any underlying written agreement.

The importance which Austria attaches to cultural conventions reflects the fact that they are an instrument enabling the Austrian federal government to influence the content and scope of cultural co-operation. In more general terms, cultural conventions are expressions of the reasons why the federal government is specially interested in having closer cultural relations with certain partner states than with others. Cultural relations governed by cultural conventions should be seen as a complement to or part of political relations.