Permanent Representative to the UN, New York Gerhard Pfanzelter of Austria

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Gerhard Pfanzelter is the Ambassador to the United Nations for Austria.
Previously, from 1983 to 1989, Gerhard Pfanzelter had served as Austria's Ambassador to Senegal, Gambia, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Guinea and Mauritania.
Gerhard Pfanzelter is the longest serving Austrian Representative ever at the United Nations.
Currently Representative Pfanzelter is leading Austria's campaign for a non-permanent seat in the Security Council for the period 2009-2010.
Pfanzelter took his law degree at the University of Innsbruck in 1966.
Pfanzelter is married and has three children.
Welcoming the upgrading of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), Ambassador Pfanzelter said “improvements to the Consolidated Appeals Process were needed, for instance through better needs assessment, and other ways of improving the timeliness and effectiveness of funding.
Ambassador Pfanzelter said “at this stage, we do not believe it is advisable to earmark any potential savings for any particular use.
Ambassador Pfanzelter said “ECOSOC should better review, guide and monitor the work of its subsidiary machinery by highlighting areas of overlap and duplication and by making recommendations to its subsidiary bodies on how to overcome such duplication.
Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter has served as the Permanent Representative of Austria to the United Nations since 1999.
In a speech given at the ceremony, Pfanzelter said the decoration recognizes Danspeckgruber's work in creating strong relations between Austria and the United States and his role as both a scholar and a committed citizen of Austria.
Pfanzelter said that in that era, and throughout the cold war, the neutral nations were very useful, providing United Nations peacekeeping troops and meeting places for leaders of the West and East blocs.
Speaking on behalf of the 25-member European Union, Austrian Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter expressed regret that his last-minute bid to seek a compromise with Kumalo to avert a divisive vote had failed.