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Erwin Sellering, former Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Chairman of the MV Climate Foundation, answers questions from media representatives at a press conference.
© Jens Büttner/dpa
The controversial MV Climate Foundation, founded by the state parliament and government in 2021, is to be freed from state influence and transferred to civil society.
The board thinks they know the way.
Schwerin - The board of the controversial MV Climate Foundation is pushing ahead with efforts to free the foundation from the state's responsibility and thus ensure its continued existence.
The withdrawal of the state parliament and state government as the two founders, which was also suggested by an expert commissioned by the state parliament, could only be legally implemented through an amendment to the statutes.
The board had already decided on this on March 4th and submitted it to the Ministry of Justice as the responsible supervisory authority for confirmation, said board chairman Erwin Sellering on Wednesday in Schwerin.
With the change, the existing right of the founders to appoint the board of directors and the board of trustees will be deleted.
This is possible at short notice and does not require a lengthy dialogue between the board, state parliament and government.
Sellering, who was himself Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania until 2017, called on the state government to stop playing for time, to recognize the impossibility of legally dissolving the foundation and not to hinder its work on climate protection.
Because of the conflict over the resolution, schools in the country are not allowed to start climate protection projects financed by the foundation.
On March 1, 2022, in response to the Russian attack on Ukraine, the state parliament decided to dissolve the MV Foundation for Environment and Climate Protection, which was funded with money from Russia.
Sellering, who was entrusted with management by the state government at the beginning of 2021, rejected this, citing the requirements of German foundation law, and continued the foundation.
In the report commissioned by State Parliament President Birgit Hesse, the Düsseldorf lawyer Andreas Urban also came to the conclusion that the foundation cannot be legally dissolved.
He suggested removing the foundation from the country's political influence and transferring it entirely to civil society.
However, large parts of the opposition in the state parliament insist on a dissolution.
The foundation was founded at the beginning of 2021 to enable the completion of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline while circumventing threats of sanctions from the USA against the companies involved.
Nord Stream 2 AG, a subsidiary of the Russian state-owned company Gazprom, contributed 20 million euros to the foundation for environmental projects, and the country gave 200,000 euros as a foundation contribution.
The foundation's business operations, which were set up temporarily to complete the construction of the gas pipeline and were also financed by Nord Stream 2, were wound up after the construction work was completed.
dpa