There are distinct official publications for primary/secondary legislation (Bundesgesetzblatt) and for legal notices, ministerial circulars and other official texts (EVI now replacing Amtsblatt zur Wiener Zeitung); see point 1.2 for details.
June 1997 (legally non-binding version) January 2004 (authentic, legally binding version)
Paper edition
Bundesgesetzblatt
A non-official print edition is made available through the main official gazette publisher, the private company Wiener Zeitung Digitale Publikationen GmbH. http://www.wienerzeitung.at
There are 5 subscription variants from a price of EUR 225,- containing, as desired, Bundesgesetzblatt part(s) I-III.
Online edition
https://www.ris.bka.gv.at Available texts
HTML: from 1945
PDF: from 1945
PDF: 1940–45, 1848–1940 and 1780–1848 (links to the Austrian National Library) Access and price
Free Legally binding
Since 1 January 2004, the online edition is legally binding in its authentic edition (signed PDF documents).
Federal Act on the Federal Law Gazette/Publication Reform Act, Bundesgesetzblatt I No 100/2003 (Bundesgesetzblattgesetz/Kundmachungsreformgesetz, BGBl.I Nr 100/2003)
Legally binding
The online edition in its authentic form (a signed PDF document) has been the only legally binding version since 1 January 2004.
Financing
State budget
Other gazettes
EVI (evi.gv.at) is the official publication platform for announcements from the federal government, state, municipality and companies. EVI is the successor to the official gazette of the Wiener Zeitung, it now only published in digital form and is operated by the Wiener Zeitung GmbH.
All nine states (Bundesländer) publish their own legal official gazettes legally binding in the Legal Information System of the Republic of Austria (https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/LgblAuth/).
The legally binding version of the Bundesgesetzblatt starting at January 2004 is available in PDF.
A non-legally binding version of the Federal Law Gazette is available in PDF format and RTF.
The issues of the Bundesgesetzblatt from 1945 to 2003 are available in HTML and PDF formats (https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Bgbl-PDF/).
Archiving
The Federal Chancellery is responsible for archiving. There is no legal provision for the archiving of electronic legislation/electronic official texts in general. However, the Federal Act on the Federal Law Gazette (§ 8 III) specifies that ‘at least three backup copies and four certified printouts shall be made of each document. One backup copy and certified printout each shall be delivered to the Austrian National Archive and to the Austrian National Library to be filed there. One certified printout shall be forwarded to the Parliament library'.
The draft bill is edited in Microsoft Word and the documents are structured according to legal category (format).
Special templates are used for conversion to XML.
Some documents are also converted from PDF to XML (Part III of the Federal Law Gazette and complex texts).
Workflow
The electronic workflow is used as a transmission method between drafting, adopting and publishing.
Publishing
Electronic edition
Final proofreading is carried out by the editing department of the Federal Chancellery, Constitutional Service.
The delay for publication after the law has been certified by the Federal President and signed by the Federal Chancellor is around one to two days, depending on the amount and scope of laws.
Paper edition
An official paper edition is no longer published, but paper copies are reprinted by the Official Gazette Publisher, Wiener Zeitung GmbH (Vienna Newspaper Ltd), subject to payment. The company uses the PDF texts from the Legal Information System (RIS) for printing the paper edition.
Both editions are published simultaneously.
