Municipality of Stallhofen

On January 19, 2006 the Municipality of Stallhofen was the first Styrian municipality to become a European Municipality ("EUropaGEMeinde"). The head of the Department for European Affairs and External Relations, Ludwig Rader, presented the mayor of Stallhofen, Vinzenz Krobath, with a "Europe-Information-Box," which contains information about the European Union available to the inhabitants free of charge. Inhabitants of Stallhofen may also direct their questions pertaining to the European Union to Franz Feirer, general manager of the municipality and Dagmar Klimascek, who have completed an EU-qualification seminar for municipal representatives and are now Stallhofen's "EUGEM Contact Persons."

In a municipal council meeting, Rader emphasized the importance of keeping politics close to the citizen. "Austrians' confidence in the European Union has continued to decline. We are grateful to the EUGEM Contact Persons for taking the European Union where citizens still have confidence: the municipal offices," Rader praised the mayor's commitment as well as that of Feirer and Klimascek.

In a subsequent press release, Regional Governor Franz Voves, who is responsible for both the Styrian cities and Department for European Affairs and, called the European Union an important peace project: "Styrians are entitled to sound information."

With the example of Stallhofen, the EUGEM-project has already gained transregional attention. The international web-based magazine "Österreich-Journal" has dedicated an in-depth  article to the project.