Dear Readers,

The EURO 2008 Soccer Championship hosted in June by Austria and Switzerland was a competition between Europe’s leading soccer nations. The host cities for the competition were pleased with the success of the event; the broadcasting of the games all over the world reached 8 billion viewers.
Austrian food and wine is widely treasured in other countries. Agricultural exports from Austria, which is now considered to be the Number 1 “organic country” in Europe, continue to grow, as explained in an article in this issue.
Next year will mark the 275th anniversary of the arrival of the Georgia Salzburgers in the New World, the oldest existing colony of Austrian families to have settled in America, a topic on which we are happy to report.
Other topics include a recent Austrian donation to the George C. Marshall International Center in Leesburg, Virginia to support the educational exchange programs shared by Americans and recipient countries of the Marshall Plan, as well as the recently reconstituted American-Austrian Cultural Society in Washington, D.C.
Yours sincerely,
Wolfgang Renezeder
Editor-in-Chief