State parliament appoints committee of inquiry into climate foundation MV

Created: 05/18/2022, 15:08

Erwin Sellering, former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

© Jens Büttner/dpa

The state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry (PUA) to deal with the controversial climate foundation MV.

He agreed on Wednesday with abstentions from the government factions of the SPD and Left.

The opposition from the CDU, Greens and FDP had applied for the committee.

Schwerin - In a joint statement, it was said that they wanted to know "when, for what and from whom funds flowed to the foundation, how political decisions were influenced, what role individual decision-makers played and how deep the influence of Russian circles and Nord Stream 2 AG in the with regard to the economic business operation was actually enough".

In addition to climate protection projects, the foundation, which was largely financed by money from Russian gas transactions, also supported the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

This was intended to circumvent US sanctions.

The operator is backed by the Russian gas company Gazprom - in addition to German cooperation partners.

The opposition not only wants to summon Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig and the chairman of the foundation, ex-Prime Minister Erwin Sellering, but also former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder (all SPD).

The Greens had previously cited Schröder in the state parliament as a prime example of a combination of political office and a planned move into business.

After leaving politics, he moved to Nord Stream AG as Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

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Dispute over climate foundation: Board of Directors announces resignation

The day before, the board of directors of the climate foundation around Sellering had announced his resignation for probably the end of September.

This should pave the way for a dissolution demanded by the state parliament.

However, CDU parliamentary group leader Franz-Robert Liskow immediately made it clear that this was not relevant to the work of the committee of inquiry.

"Since it was founded just a year and a half ago, there have been doubts about whose interests the state government at the time served - with whatever motivation," said Harald Terpe, leader of the Greens parliamentary group.

He also accused the government of withholding, delaying and concealing information from Parliament.

dpa