Brussels, 07/05/2008 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 May, Slovakia and Austria officially presented the joint candidacy of Bratislava and Vienna to host the European Institute of Technology and Innovation, which is due to open this summer. Austrian Science and Research Minister Johannes Hahn and Slovakian Education Minister Ján Mikolaj, supported by MEPs Hannes Swoboda (PES, Austria), Paul Rübig (EPP-ED, Austria), Monika Benobá (PES, Slovakia) and Ján Hudacký (EPP-ED, Slovakia) set out the reasons that made this candidacy ideal. The geographical location of the two cities at the centre of Europe was symbolic, they said. The short distance between the Austrian and Slovakian capitals (only 60 km) presented no problems given the excellent infrastructure that exists and which also provides easy and quick travel to the other major European cities. Bringing two European capitals together, one from an older member state and the other from a new member state, showed that “borders are disappearing and a new pattern is appearing, the sign of successful integration,” Hahn said. The two capitals are also perfect representatives of a young, dynamic Europe, centres of excellence in research and creativity, with some 25,000 researchers and over 200,000 students. The Governing Board would be located in Bratislava for ordinary meetings, Mikolaj said. The Slovakian capital would also host the secretariat, responsible for the organisational aspects of all activities, and also the Internal Auditing Function. The Director and Executive Committee would be located in Vienna. Austria and Slovakia wound also second five national experts to the EITI headquarters. There would be no additional running costs as a result of sharing infrastructure, rather there would be synergy, the two candidate countries said. “We are confident: our candidacy is strong both politically and financially,” said Hahn. The Council of Ministers will make its decision on where the EITI is to be located in June. Apart from Vienna and Bratislava, the Hungarian capital Budapest, and the cities of Wroclaw in Poland and Sant Cugat del Valles in Spain have officially applied to host the EITI. (I.L.)