As early as March, the state parliament in Schwerin decided to end the Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection MV. That hasn’t happened yet. The opposition in particular is becoming increasingly impatient.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) – The controversial climate protection foundation Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania will remain in place until further notice, despite a parliamentary resolution to dissolve it. The Greens parliamentary group failed on Friday in Schwerin with its initiative to dismiss the foundation’s board of directors led by ex-Prime Minister Erwin Sellering and thus initiate the end of the foundation, which was largely financed with money from Russian gas deals.
After a controversial debate, only the CDU approved the application. The FDP abstained, the SPD, Linke and AfD voted against, citing the legal situation. At the beginning of March, the state parliament instructed the government to work towards a quick end to the foundation. A date that had been set for the end of September had passed without result.
According to the state government, an immediate dismissal of the board is currently not possible. “From our point of view, there is currently – I expressly emphasize currently – no reason to dismiss the board of directors of the foundation,” said Justice Minister Jacqueline Bernhardt (left). She referred to the state foundation law. Accordingly, behavior that is harmful to the foundation is required as an important reason for a dismissal, which is currently not recognizable, the minister explained. Your department is responsible for the supervision of the foundation, a pure legal supervision and no political supervision, as Bernhardt emphasized.
The Green MP Constanze Oehlrich, on the other hand, referred to a legal opinion commissioned by the government. After that, the government would have the option of dissolving the foundation because it endangered the common good. The path chosen by the red-red coalition instead, to prepare the way for the dissolution of the foundation through an agreement with the board, apparently does not lead to the goal. “The joint declaration from the spring of this year is not worth the paper it is written on,” said Oehlrich.
At the end of September, Sellering announced that the board could not yet resign. This is only possible when the auditors’ certificates for the processing of the economic part of the foundation are available and questions about the legality of the gift tax levied have also been clarified.
The agreement stipulates that the board of directors will resign when the transaction is complete, said SPD MP Philipp da Cunha. “This agreement is still valid. And I assume that it will also be implemented quickly,” he said.
The CDU MP Sebastian Ehlers sharply criticized the government’s actions and the behavior of the foundation’s board of directors: “The whole thing culminates in the fact that a former prime minister shows his disregard for our constitutional state every day,” he said.
AfD MP Horst Förster contradicted this. Foundations are protected from political influence for good reason, and Sellering acts in the interest of the foundation’s purpose of environmental protection. “I find it funny that as an AfD MP I have to defend Mr. Sellering,” said the former judge.
The MV Climate and Environmental Protection Foundation was founded in early 2021 by decision of the state parliament. From the very beginning, critics saw it as a camouflage organization because it was supposed to ensure the continued construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline via a separate economic part financed by Russia. The pipeline was completed at the end of 2021, circumventing threatened US sanctions, but was not granted an operating license from the German side due to Russia’s actions against Ukraine.
In addition to the economic commitment of at least 165 million euros, the decisive financing of the actual foundation work with money from Russian natural gas deals also caused massive criticism. Nord Stream 2 provided the foundation with 20 million euros for climate protection projects, while the state’s contribution to the foundation was only 200,000 euros.
After the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine began in February 2022, the state government distanced itself from Russia and Nord Stream, and the state parliament voted to dissolve the foundation. The delays in this have been the subject of criticism for months, especially from the opposition. On their initiative, the state parliament set up a committee of inquiry to shed light on the circumstances and background of the establishment of the foundation.
Documents show that the Gazprom subsidiary Nord Stream 2 AG had a direct influence. That brought Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) into an explanation. She had also campaigned personally for the pipeline project for a long time, but described it as a mistake after the start of the war.
