Dr Michael Häupl
Mayor of Vienna

28 March 2007: Dr. Michael Häupl was born on 14 September 1949 in Altlengbach in Lower Austria. He started his political career in 1975, when between then and 1977 he was Chairman of the Austrian Association of Socialist Students (VSSTÖ).

In 1978 he became a member of the Democratic Party Committee for the 16th district of Vienna, Ottakring. Between 1978 and 1984 he undertook various functions in the Young Generation (JG), the youth organisation of the Austrian Social Democratic Party SPÖ.

In 1982 he became an elected chairman of JG Vienna and the Deputy Chairman of the Federal JG Organisation. From 1983 until 1988 he was a Member of the Vienna City Council and Provincial Parliament and from 1988 to 1994, he was a Member of the Vienna City Government as Executive City Councillor for Environment, Recreation and Sports.

In 1993 he was made Chairman of SPÖ Vienna and on November 7 he was elected Mayor and Governor of Vienna. In addition, Mr. Häupl is currently the President of the Council of European Regions and Municipalities (CEMR) as well as President of the Austrian Association of Cities and Towns (Österreichischer Städtebund).

Since becoming Mayor of Vienna Mr. Häupl achieved a number of objectives for his city in various areas such as social responsibility and security for all people who live in Vienna, strict environmental protection standards as well as a large-scale initiative for the promotion of science, research and technology.

Examples of social responsibility in Vienna are the successful access to world-class medical care and the right to grow old in dignity and receive the necessary nursing, irrespective of income. An excellent free public school system is offered in Vienna as well as free day care for children from low-income families. The City of Vienna provides targeted assistance to those who need it - ranging from heating subsidies to an assistant teacher scheme for children with special needs, and free language courses for migrants.

Another key issue for Mr. Häupl is the environment. With 36 individual packages of measures forming the so-called Climate Protection Programme KliP, Vienna has reduced its annual carbon dioxide emissions by some 2.4 tonnes. These measures include the large-scale development and expansion of public transport and district heating, the doubling of subsidies for solar energy, and the thermal renovation of residential buildings.

This has yielded visible and measurable results: Vienna has the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per capita in all of Austria. Currently the city council is preparing “KliP II” which will be launched in 2010 when the current climate protection programme ends.

With these efforts, Vienna remains an environmentally model city. Furthermore, Mr Häupl supports sustainable large-scale investments and funding schemes for science, research and technology.