 The legal instruments that govern access to remedies for victims of human rights abuse and environmental abuse by corporations outside the EU have now been adopted and are in place already quite some time ago, 2001 and 2007 respectively. And I think so it's a very good moment and a very opportune and important to gather comprehensive information on how these tools and instruments are implemented in practice, how the jurisdiction is going on and taking place and I'm looking very much forward also to the project results and recommendations that may come out and which will help eventually also to improve these legal instruments EU-wide. But I think the project also may have a much wider importance and much wider impact and help to contribute to the enforcement of the principle of policy coherence overall for EU policies. The EU is based on principles of sustainable development, fundamental rights, human rights, good governance and so it is very important that these principles govern also its external policies, trade policy and development policy in particular and I think steps have been taken in the past, legislative and non, to improve the way corporations respect human rights and sustainable development principles, steps like the directive on the disclosure of non-financial information that has been adopted last year and really enter into force in about a year and which should also bring improvements in this area for stakeholders and workers of corporations, of large companies of course for which this directive applies and in its trade policy the European Union has also made steps forward to improve the trade not only as a trade policy as such but trade as a tool for sustainable development and human rights and good governments in the partner countries. If for instance the system of generalized preferences that has been reformed recently, partner countries receive support in these areas if they adopt a key UN conventions, the ILO conventions for instance and so there's growing attention and also legislative improvements in these areas. I would like to wish you a very productive day and I'm looking forward as I said on behalf of my colleagues also in Brussels who are behind also the funding for these projects to their recommendations and results. Thanks for your attention. Thank you very much for these encouraging words. We also were lucky to secure additional funding to support this European Commission project both by the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Consumer Protection and the Austrian Chamber of Labor and I would like now the two representatives of these institutions to say a few words of welcome. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. First of all I wish you, I want to wish you a warm welcome to Vienna and I hope that all the participants and especially the participants from abroad will find some time to enjoy the city in this wonderful time of year with all the lights and the Chris Kindle markets and the punch. I would like to thank the Ludwig Boertzmann Institute for Human Rights for the invitation and to this third training session taking place in the context of the European Research Project Human Rights in Business. The Austrian Social Ministry is looking back on a long and fruitful cooperation with the Ludwig Boertzmann Institute. We co-funded already several EU projects like the current one for example the very interesting study on the implementation of the EU decent work agenda. The findings and results were always very useful and for sure provided in advance to the political debate. Let me say a few words concerning our topic today human rights and business. As you might know the Austrian government is currently working on the establishment of a national action plan on human rights. We are responding to long expressed demand within the Austrian civil society by doing this. In cooperation with all ministries, federal provinces, the Austrian Ombudsman Board and civil society organizations about 50 measures and projects have been developed already. The Austrian Social Ministry has been committed to including the topic human and business rights and the national action plan on human rights and in this context our ministry due to its competence focuses on the protection, recognition and strengthening of workers and consumer rights. It is of utmost importance to develop strategies that ensure those rights at all the stages of the value chain and not only in Austria. Particularly multinational companies play an essential role by adhering to the international labour organization, labour standards and to human rights by developing effective tools for risk management and corporate compliance and by implementing an active corporate social responsibility strategy. They can contribute to decent working conditions along their value chains and prevent human rights violations. Companies with value chains that span the globe are in particularly confronted with very complex problems and challenges. They need to take the responsibility for human rights, internationally recognized workers' rights and the protection of the environment and they need to safeguard them in the course of their business activities. Due to the globalization of economic relationships and the resulting increasing complexity of legal regulation and procurement, protection and sales processes, companies, policy makers and the society as a whole are facing new challenges. One of the big questions in the context of human rights in business is how do we provide justice in the European Union for human rights violations committed abroad by EU companies? The third pillar of the UN guiding principles access to remedy provide a frame for possible answers to this question. Considering the complexity of international economic relations and national and international regulatory processes, there's a need for further research in this area to identify the barriers and limitations regarding jurisdiction and applicable law rules. Austria continues to fully support the UN guiding principles on business and human rights and welcomes all steps towards their meaningful implementation. We're committed to take within the ongoing preparation of a national action plan of human rights concrete step to implement those UN guiding principles. I'm very grateful to all of you for coming here today to share your expertise. The training session will give us a deeper insight and a complex topic and for sure provides useful input. I wish you all a very productive and interesting day and thank you. Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you as well from my side to Ludwig Boltzmann Institute of Human Rights for organizing this excellent event and for the invitation of saying a few introductory words as well. A few weeks ago the researchers of Ludwig Boltzmann Institute approached me and asked whether Austrian Chamber of Labor could as well co-finance today's events and the study conducted by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute. And since a few years Austrian Chamber of Labor has an assigned budget for cooperation with universities and research institutes the so-called Netzwerk Wissenschaft in German which allows us to co-finance research projects like this and international corporations which go like a bit beyond our core set of work. So I'm very pleased that we could support this important and interesting event today and the study on company-based grievance mechanisms which Ludwig Boltzmann Institute is currently working on. Mr. Pointecker already referred to the UN Guiding Principles by John Raggi that call on the states and businesses to consider a broad spectrum of remedies for victims of corporate related human rights abuse. Those mechanisms could be state-based, non-state-based, judicial and non-judicial. I re-read the UN Guiding Principles like before today's events just to remind myself on the broad spectrum of mechanisms that John Raggi considers for the states. Those include criminal and civil and labor courts that maybe those remedies may be located at national human rights institution, onboard persons offices, government-run complaints offices, national contact points under the OECD guidelines and the company level. Those remedies may include apologies, restitution, rehabilitation, financial or non-financial compensation, punitive damages whether criminal or administrative such as fines, prevention of harms through for example injunctions or guarantees of non-repetition. As well, Guiding Principles number 25 calls on the states to facilitate public awareness and understanding of these mechanisms, how they can be accessed and any kind of supports the victims of human rights violations might need. At the point being unfortunately we have to say that Austria does not quite use the full spectrum of these mechanisms provided in the UN Guiding Principles. I'm sure today's conference will give us a good opportunity to discuss whether the reasons can be found more within the legal system in Austria's legal system or whether there are more like practical burdens for the victims not to take those kind of steps. In my point of view today's conference is a very important contribution on the way to narrow this existing gap. As Ms. Lugin already mentioned in her speech already in 2011 the EU has called on the member states to submit national action plans for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principle on the national level. Austria unfortunately so far has failed to do so, though of course one has to note that important aspects of the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles are covered in different projects. For example, and very important today's project and event and study. Another study I would like to mention was the study conducted by Nezuwe on corporate due diligence and how the concept of corporate due diligence could be implemented into Austrian law which was recently presented in the Austrian parliament. Despite these excellent initiatives like today's events still a systematic approach for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles into Austrian policy and law is missing and would therefore be very important. In this slide I hope that today's event will not be an ending point but more a starting point on the debate of remedies for victims of corporate human rights violations and that there will be follow-up meetings with like groups like this international and national researchers, judges, practitioners as well as NGOs, trade unions and as well company representatives. Thank you.