Wolfgang Petritsch

Wolfgang Petrich ( born August 26, 1947 in Klagenfurt) is an Austrian diplomat and politician ( SPÖ). He is a member of the Slovene-speaking minority of Carinthia.

Life

Wolfgang Petrich grew up in Glainach. He studied history, German studies, political science and law at the University of Vienna, where he received his doctorate in 1972. From 1977 to 1983 he was secretary of Chancellor Bruno Kreisky, about which he published a biography in 2011. During his time as Austrian ambassador in Belgrade (1997 to 1999) he was appointed EU Special Representative for Kosovo. As such, he was in 1999 the EU's chief negotiator in the peace talks in Rambouillet and Paris. As High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina ( 1999-2002 ), he led the civilian implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. In the national election in 2002 he was a candidate for the Social Democratic Party and would have been provided in the event of an election victory as Foreign Minister. Even before the ballot, he was appointed Austrian Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, on the post he returned to the beginning of 2008.

Wolfgang Petrich is considered foreign policy expert with a focus on South-Eastern Europe.

In 2002 he received from the Jewish Community Vienna Torberg Medal.

On 23 February 2007 Wolfgang Petrich was awarded the European Court of Human Rights with the European Human Rights Prize.

He is an honorary citizen of the city Ferlach (Carinthia ). Since 2008 he is the Head of the Permanent Mission of Austria to the OECD in Paris, since 2013 Honorary Doctor of the Alps-Adriatic University of Klagenfurt.