On 15 May 1955, the State Treaty for the Re-establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria is signed at Belvedere Palace, Vienna, by Julius Raab, Austrian Federal Chancellor, Leopold Figl, Austrian Foreign Minister, Antoine Pinay, French Foreign Minister, Harold Macmillan, British Foreign Secretary, John Foster Dulles, US Secretary of State, Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Foreign Minister, Ivan Ilichev, Soviet High Commissioner in Austria, Sir Geoffrey Wallinger, British High Commissioner in Austria, Llewellyn Thompson, US High Commissioner in Austria, and Roger Lalouette, French Deputy High Commissioner in Austria.

On 15 May 1955, a special edition of the Austrian daily newspaper Wiener Zeitung is devoted to the signing, the same day in Vienna, of the State Treaty for the Re-establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria.

In 1955, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) emphasises its role in the establishment of the State Treaty by referring to a statement made in 1947 by Karl Renner, Austrian Federal President, which compares the four occupying powers to elephants that make it impossible to manoeuvre the Austrian boat.

‘A painful goodbye.’ On 26 October 1955, the Austrian cartoonist, Ironimus, illustrates the end of the military occupation, and depicts the Austrian people saying goodbye to the Allied troops stationed in their country.

In 1980, in an article for the magazine Europäische Rundschau, Franz Karasek, Austrian Secretary-General of the Council of Europe, analyses the changes made to Austria’s European policy after the signing, on 15 May 1955, in Vienna, of the State Treaty for the Re-establishment of an Independent and Democratic Austria.

On 26 October 1955, the Austrian National Council passes the Constitutional Law which lays down Austria’s permanent neutral status.

On 23 September 1961, the Austrian daily newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung comments on the implications of European integration for Austria, with particular emphasis on the need to respect the country’s neutral status.

On 16 March 1967, the Austrian Chancellor, Josef Klaus, delivers an address at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow in which he defends Austria’s foreign policy, emphasising the fact that it is in line with the country’s neutral status.

On 3 May 1967, in Budapest, the Austrian Chancellor, Josef Klaus, delivers an address at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in which he emphasises the importance that his country places on its neutrality and on the establishment of a good neighbour policy with Hungary in the Danube region.

On 11 February 1970, Kurt Waldheim, Austrian Foreign Minister, emphasises how important it is for Austria to maintain a relationship of trust with the Great Powers and to pursue a good neighbour policy in Europe.

Foreign Minister, delivers an address in Milan to the Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP) in which he emphasises the development of the Austrian identity since 1918 and the country’s neutrality since the signing, in May 1955, of the State Treaty marking the end of the Allied occupation.

On 5 May 1972, Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian Foreign Minister, delivers an address in Lucerne in which he emphasises the possibility of combining a European integration policy with the principle of neutrality, highlighting, in particular, the example of Austria in the Council of Europe.

In 1974, at a conference held in Austria on the economic and political situation in Europe, Archduke Otto von Habsburg-Lothringen, President of the International Paneuropean Union, emphasises the need for a precise interpretation of Austria’s neutral status, which in no way precludes the country from becoming a member of political or economic organisations.

In an address delivered in 1987, Erhard Busek, Chairman of the Vienna Section of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), discusses Vienna’s spiritual roots and its role as the capital of cultural Central Europe.

In 1999, the Austrian cartoonist Ironimus (Gustav Peichl) paints an ironic picture of the difficulties experienced by Austria (represented by a juggling Wolfgang Schüssel, Austrian Federal Foreign Minister) in trying to effectively combine the country’s principle of neutrality with full participation in Europe’s political and military organisations.