Former Austrian Ambassador to Slovakia to build new democracy initiative in Council of Europe member states
We are happy to welcome Helfried Carl as Senior Director of the Innovation in Politics Institute. Together with him, we will be launching our new European democracy initiative, with which we want to promote innovation for a vibrant democracy in politics and civil society. Helfried Carl’s experience at the Austrian Parliament and his international perspective make him predestined for this function.
Helfried Carl returned from Slovakia at the end of January, where he had been posted as Ambassador of Austria since 2014. From 2008 to 2014 he was chief of cabinet and foreign policy advisor to Barbara Prammer, President of the National Council, who died in 2014. He gained further diplomatic experience as Deputy Head of Cabinet of the then High Representative in Bosnia, Ambassador Wolfgang Petritsch, at the Austrian Mission to the United Nations in New York and as the first Austrian secondment to the British Foreign Ministry. Carl studied political science and a combination of law and history at Salzburg University as well as international relations and international economics at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna/Italy and Washington D.C.
“I am delighted about this new, exciting task. Democracy is the essence of the European way of life, which we must continue to develop in these turbulent times in order to preserve it. The Institute’s positive, innovative approach to new forms of political work is exactly the right approach for this challenge,” says Carl.
