The board of directors at a press conference.
(Photo: dpa)
Schwerin The three-member board of the controversial climate foundation has surprisingly announced his resignation. “We will resign in the next few weeks,” said Erwin Sellering (SPD), board member of the foundation, on Tuesday in Schwerin. The entrepreneur Katja Enderlein and the former CDU European politician Werner Kuhn will give up their posts with him. From the point of view of the three board members, a resignation will then be possible, since the certified financial statements for the past year should be available in the coming week.
The board members could subsequently be prosecuted more severely as a result of the auditor’s certificate. The resignation has no effect on the continued existence of the foundation.
The foundation was set up in early 2021 with the aim of circumventing impending US sanctions against the construction of the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline. In addition to the state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania under Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD), the Russian gas company Gazprom was the godfather.
After Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the state government withdrew its support from the Climate Foundation, and Schwesig announced its dissolution last May. This led to a dispute with Sellering’s board of directors, who did not consider this step necessary.
A foundation is designed for eternity, said Schwesig’s predecessor. As an independent legal form, such a legal form cannot be processed without further ado unless there are compelling economic reasons. “If we had followed the constant requests to dissolve the foundation, we would have made ourselves liable to prosecution,” said Sellering.
The foundation ended the business part as a financing platform for the work on Nord Stream 2 in August 2022, but the “climate protection” mandate remained. The purpose of the founder can thus be fulfilled, said Sellering. The Climate Foundation has assets in the millions.
This was fed in two batches with a total of 20 million euros from Nord Stream 2. Half of the money went to the country as a gift tax. The current board of directors sees the claim as unjustified and is therefore suing for the money to be returned. The tax process is still ongoing.
Tax officer destroyed the foundation’s tax records
The conflict between the foundation and the state was further heated up when it was recently revealed that a tax officer had burned the relevant tax returns. Although the woman was not familiar with the case, she found the papers in her office and destroyed them in her mother’s fireplace. Since then, the opposition has been talking about “Kamin-Gate”, also because the actual background has not been clarified.
>> Read here: Burned tax returns from the Climate Foundation: Minister of Finance Geue justifies himself
The state government is largely silent on the case with reference to tax secrecy. However, Sellering emphasized that misconduct by a processor is not covered by tax secrecy. From his point of view, the Ministry of Finance could openly inform the public about the ominous case.
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