SPD demands: ex-environment minister should disclose income

Created: 01/19/2022, 06:02

Franz Untersteller (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) is in the Black Forest National Park.

© Patrick Seeger/dpa/archive image

Nine months after retiring from politics, former Environment Minister Untersteller is advising a large energy supplier.

From the perspective of the SPD, the commitment of the Greens raises a number of questions.

The government needs to do some research.

Stuttgart - The SPD has asked the state to take a close look at the circumstances of the new consultant job of ex-environment minister Franz Untersteller (Greens) at the Mannheim energy supplier MVV.

The legal expert of the SPD parliamentary group, Boris Weirauch, told the German Press Agency in Stuttgart: "The state government must ensure that the advice given to MVV Energie AG by the former energy minister does not result in a conflict of interest." It must be ruled out "that Insincere uses confidential information, which he obtained during his ministerial tenure, to the detriment of EnBW".

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The SPD man also asked the 64-year-old to disclose his income from the consulting relationship to the state government so that offsetting against his ministerial pension could be checked.

For data protection reasons, the state government has not yet provided any information about the transitional allowance and ministerial pension of the former department head.

The Mannheim-based utility MVV announced last week that Untersteller will be working as a consultant for the fifth-largest utility in Germany.

But there is only an expense allowance and no employment.

In the southwest, unlike in the federal government and a number of other federal states, there are no rules for a waiting period for former members of the government.

Untersteller resigned as Minister for the Environment in May.

Both Transparency and the FDP and SPD had criticized that the change of sides came too quickly.

The SPD parliamentary group now wants to make a new push for a waiting period law, because green-black has so far delayed it.

She passed a bill that would require current and former ministers and secretaries of state to report a job in the private sector for a period of 18 months after leaving office.

As a rule, employment should be prohibited for one year if public interests could be adversely affected.

Weirauch said: "The change from politics to business and vice versa is not reprehensible, but fundamentally legitimate." However, clear rules are finally needed "when and under what conditions the change of government members to business is possible and when a cool-down period is appropriate”.

Green parliamentary group leader Andreas Schwarz announced last week that the coalition wanted to tackle the issue of the waiting period soon.

"We have always emphasized that political decisions in a government office must be made independently, not with the next employment contract in mind," he said.

"Here we keep our word and will bring a modern regulation promptly on the way." The parliamentary managing director Andreas Deuschle said for the CDU: "We are working on new transparency rules.

This will also include the waiting period for members of the state government.

We will decide that calmly and prudently with our coalition partner.” dpa