Originally, the board of the controversial climate foundation MV was supposed to stop working in September. But unresolved legal and financial issues are delaying this. The Greens are pushing for an end to the foundation. Your latest push to do so calls the board of directors into action.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) - The Greens in the state parliament have received massive criticism from the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Climate Protection Foundation for their call for the state government to dismiss the foundation's board of directors. In a four-page open letter he signed, CEO Erwin Sellering accuses the Green Group of distorting facts, disregarding the legal situation and exceeding the limits of personal defamation. "Stop aggressively squinting at headlines, which appears to be explained by a misguided understanding of the opposition, but has no actual basis," the letter reads.
The former Prime Minister Sellering was thus reacting to a motion by the Greens for the next week's state parliament session. It calls on the red-red government to dismiss the board of directors of the MV Foundation for Climate and Environmental Protection and to appoint a new one. The reasons given include the refusal to provide press information and the non-payment of the gift tax.
Sellering contradicts this in the letter. The gift tax - reportedly almost half of the 20 million euros provided by Nord Stream 2 - was paid with reservations. In addition, 95 percent of press inquiries were answered. The exception was information on the companies involved in the completion of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. These companies had "acted lawfully and politically expressly desired", had done nothing wrong and should now be able to trust that they will not be pilloried.
In two instances, the foundation was given the same legal status as an authority and was obliged to name the company. The foundation opposes this. She filed a constitutional complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court last week.
The pipeline was completed at the end of 2021, circumventing the threat of US sanctions, but did not receive an operating license from the German side due to Russia's actions against Ukraine. According to its own statements, the foundation concluded contracts with around 80 companies for a total of 165 million euros for its separate economic part, which were financed by Nord Stream 2. In addition to the economic commitment, the significant financing of the actual foundation work with money from Russian natural gas deals also caused massive criticism.
There is agreement between the state parliament and the government that the foundation should be dissolved. Sellering - himself an administrative judge before moving into politics - emphasizes, with reference to foundation law, that this can only be done in accordance with the law.
