Austria into the European Union in 1995. At the April 1995 party congress, Wolfgang Schüssel took over the ÖVP chairmanship in a coup succeeding Busek and replacing the party’s ministers in the governing coalition. Following his departure from the Austrian government, Busek was tipped as rector of the College of Europe in Bruges, the training ground for EU officials and diplomats, and as being the preferred choice of then President of the European Commission Jacques Santer for the post; the job instead went to Otto von der Gablentz. Role in European politics, 2000–2009 In early 2000 Busek was appointed Special Representative of the Austrian Government on EU Enlargement by Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel. He served in that position until December 2001. From January 2002 until June 2008, Busek was the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, succeeding Bodo Hombach in this Brussels-based position. During his time in office, he pressed for EU membership for the Western Balkan countries before Turkey’s accession to the Union. In 2009, Busek served as an adviser to the Czech EU presidency. Other activities Busek has delivered many lectures on domestic and foreign topics and has participated in many conferences in Austria and abroad. He received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Kraków, of Bratislava, of Brasov and Czernowitz, of Liberec and the Webster-St. Louis University Vienna. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Applied Sciences Salzburg, Visiting Professor at Duke University, NC, USA, and at the University of Agriculture in Vienna. He was also teaching at the University Innsbruck and the University of Vienna. In addition his lectures are planned to be involved in the teaching programme of the Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universität Wien) and the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Since 2008, Busek has been advising the Economic Initiative for Kosovo on promoting foreign direct investments in Kosovo. In addition, Busek has held paid and unpaid positions, including: Duke University, Visiting Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies Institute for the Danube and Central Europe (IDM), Chairman Europaeum, Member of the Board of Trustees European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member European Forum Alpbach, Chairman EU-Russia Centre (EU-RC), President International Center for Advanced and Comparative EU-Russia/NIS Research (ICEUR), Co-Chair (alongside Hannes Swoboda) Commission on Radio and Television Policy: Central and Eastern Europe, Co-Chair European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, Member Committee on Education in the European Union, Member Co-ordinator