Monday, May 11th 2009
Renewed protests announced for OMV shareholders' meeting
STOP THE BOMB to confront board with its criticism of proposed deals with Iran
On Wednesday 13 May 2009, the OMV shareholders' meeting will take place at the Austria Center in Vienna. During this meeting the topic of the planned billion euro deal with Iran will again be on the agenda. The coalition STOP THE BOMB, which has been campaigning against doing business with the Iranian regime since the end of 2007, successfully staged protests at last year's shareholders' meeting, exposing the moral contradictions in OMV's policies. The management board was thus forced to take a stand on its involvements in Iran. This year, members of the coalition will again take part in the meeting as smallholders to voice their criticism. They will ask questions about the deal with Iran and OMV's involvement in the Nabucco gas pipeline project, which, according to current assessments, would not have any economic sense without the inclusion of Iranian gas supplies. Furthermore, all OMV shareholders will be informed about the deals of OMV with Iran and the character of the Iranian regime outside the venue, in front of the Austria Center.
Although the Austrian government has since relativized its initially unconditional support for OMV's deal with Iran, the company itself seems to stick to its plans to grant the Iranian regime an economic as well as political and propagandistic success by seeking to conclude a billion euro deal. STOP THE BOMB spokeswoman Simone Dinah Hartmann stresses the potentially fatal consequences of any such a business deal with the Iranian regime: "The planned agreement would upgrade the Iranian regime towards being a main trade partner of Austria and even toward being an important strategic partner of Europe. While international efforts are trying to avert the threat that emerges from the Iranian regime and its nuclear program - not only for Israel - by continuously pressuring the regime, a company in which the Republic of Austria is holding a 30% share threatens to undermine these efforts."
