For Austria’s Ambassador to Greece, Gerda Vogl, the posting was never just another diplomatic assignment. Speaking in episode 17 of To Vima International’s Ambassadors Series, Ms. Vogl described arriving in Athens as reaching “the centre of my interest,” having previously served in Rome, Istanbul, Skopje and North Macedonia. Three years, she noted with a smile, are simply not enough to see everything Greece has to offer.
An avid traveller across the country, the Ambassador pushed back firmly against the notion that Greek islands are interchangeable, contrasting the lush greenery of the Ionian islands with the windswept, historically rich Cyclades and the diverse Byzantine and Ottoman heritage of the Dodecanese. His one cultural surprise? Greek hospitality — so overwhelming, he admitted, that it sometimes left him, as an Austrian, at a loss for how to respond in kind.
On the economic front, the Ambassador opened with a striking anecdote: Austria and Greece exchange roughly 100 million euros’ worth of cheese annually, with Greek feta and Austrian yellow cheese each accounting for half. Beyond food, she identified green technology, construction, infrastructure, waste management and health technologies as sectors where Austrian expertise aligns well with Greece’s current growth trajectory — noting that the Greek economy is expanding faster than Austria’s and much of the rest of Europe. With around 50 subsidiaries of Austrian companies already operating in Greece, the Ambassador sees conditions as ripe for deeper investment.
Tourism figures underline just how strong the bilateral relationship already is: nearly 925,000 Austrians — more than ten percent of Austria’s entire population — visited Greece last year alone.
Migration emerged as another area of active bilateral engagement. Both Greece, as a frontline arrival country, and Austria, a major destination for secondary migration, are deeply affected by the issue. The Ambassador highlighted recent high-level ministerial exchanges and expressed hope that the new European Pact on Asylum and Migration, due to come into force in June, will bring greater clarity — while stressing that human rights must remain central to any policy response.
On the historical dimension, the Ambassador recalled the role of Vienna’s Greek diaspora community in supporting both the Greek War of Independence and Austrian cultural life, pointing to the Sinas family’s contribution to the Academy of Athens and industrialist Nicolas Dumas’s funding of the Vienna Musikverein as enduring symbols of a relationship built on genuine mutual enrichment.
