After months of examination, the Ministry of Justice in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania approved an amendment to its statutes requested by the controversial Climate Foundation. Harsh criticism comes from the opposition.
Schwerin (dpa / mv) - Shortly after the beginning of the parliamentary summer break in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the discussion about the controversial climate foundation MV is getting lively again. While the opposition CDU accuses the red-red state government of violating the principles of the rule of law when it comes to file management, the Ministry of Justice in Schwerin approves an amendment to the statutes requested by the foundation after months of examination.
The ministry announced on Monday that this had been carried out in accordance with the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Foundation Act (paragraph 9, paragraph 1, sentence 2). According to the information, the references to the gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 were deleted. The Ministry must approve such changes in its capacity as foundation regulator.
The MV Climate Foundation, which has been criticized for its support of the gas pipeline, had already applied to the Ministry of Justice on April 14 to have its main sponsor removed from its statutes. "We want to make it clear that the foundation no longer has anything to do with Nord Stream 2," said the foundation's board member and ex-Prime Minister Erwin Sellering (SPD) at the beginning of May.
At the request of the German Press Agency, Sellering said on Monday that he was pleased with the approval, but that this did not change the overall situation. The head of the foundation stands by the agreement reached with the state government in mid-May, according to which the foundation board will resign as soon as the commercial business involved in the construction of the pipeline has been completed. With the resignation, all personal relationships between the foundation and the pipeline were also eliminated, Sellering said. The dissolution of the foundation sought by the state government and state parliament would then no longer be the responsibility of the current board.
The Climate Foundation Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania was founded in early 2021 after a state parliament resolution and was controversial from the start. One of their goals is to spread the idea of climate protection. At the same time, however, the foundation should also support the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline for Russian natural gas. The reason was US sanction threats against companies involved in the construction - the foundation was supposed to act as a kind of protective shield. After the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the state parliament decided to strive for a dissolution.
However, the CDU parliamentary group in the state parliament accuses the state government of having – at the request of Nord Stream 2 AG – refrained from communicating in writing on the subject in order to protect the company from the sanctions. A date note from the State Chancellery from February 2020 suggests that Nord Stream 2 AG only wanted to transmit information to the state government orally - to protect it from access by US authorities, who had imposed sanctions on the German-Russian energy project .
"If a government deliberately refrains from creating files so that it leaves no traces, it violates fundamental principles of the rule of law," said CDU parliamentary group leader Franz-Robert-Liskow to the news portal t-online on Monday. Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) must comment on this. From Liskow's point of view, such purely verbal communication would be an explanation for gaps in the files of the state government.
The State Chancellery confirmed the authenticity of the file note, but rejected allegations of having acted conspiratorially. The document is also not related to the founding of the controversial climate foundation MV. In the state parliament, a committee of inquiry is currently examining the government's actions in connection with the founding of the foundation.
