Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Dieter Stiefel, Alice Teichova (Hrsg.): Sonderband 9. „Zarte Bande” – Österreich und die europäischen planwirtschaftlichen Länder / „Delicate Relationships” – Austria and Europe’s Planned Economies (2006)
Žarko Lazarević /Jože Prinčič: Slovene-Austrian Economic Relations, 1945-1991 (A View from Slovenia)
SLOVENE-AUSTRIAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS, 1945-1991 (A VIEW FROM SLOVENIA) Zarko Lazarevic/Joze Princic Introduction In this period, Slovenia was a part of the former Yugoslavia. This is why - when dealing with economic relations - it is necessary to consider also the Yugoslav dimension of the issue. It was the federal authorities that set out a systemic framework for cooperation with Austria, they laid down the main orientations and defined domestic and foreign economic and trade policies. Also, as a subject of international law, the federal authorities were signatories to international treaties. No doubt, Slovenia was a republic that was the most interested in good political and economic relations with Austria, not only because of historically close relations but also because of its immediate vicinity to Austria. Throughout the period, Slovene authorities thus struggled with the federal authorities to advocate Slovenia's interests in relations with Austria. As they had to be in line with the interests of other republics, this process required considerable efforts and negotiations. Archive Materials It is necessary to consider this hierarchical duality also when dealing with the sources of research into economic relations between Slovenia and Austria. The materials of the federal authorities are stored in the Belgrade archives, whilst the materials of the Slovene republic authorities are kept in Ljubljana. In Belgrade, the former Yugoslav capital, access to materials in the Archives of Serbia and Montenegro (former Archives of Yugoslavia) is free. This of course applies to the archive fonds which these Archives took possession of and which they keep in their depositories. The materials are available to researchers, although access has so far been rather difficult, as most fonds have been moved to the archives only recently and have not yet been processed and stored according to archiving rules. Instead, only basic inventories of materials are available, and only in some cases also the inventories of fonds. Before starting with serious research into the archive fonds, it is recommended to obtain at least a general knowledge about the structure of federal authorities and the division of competencies in foreign trade relations. In the period from 1945 to 1956, international economic cooperation was led by the Ministry of Foreign Trade of the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia (FPRY). In this fond, one can find data on general international economic cooperation as Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs/Sonderband 9 233
