Austria’s Environment Minister Gewessler has agreed to the EU renaturation law – against the will of Chancellor Nehammer. He announced that he would file charges against the Green Party minister. However, there will be no coalition break in Vienna.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) does not want to end the government cooperation with the Greens despite a serious conflict over an EU environmental protection law. The coalition is actually at an end, said the ÖVP leader in Brussels. “If you ask me how I feel: yes, it is time, it doesn’t make sense like this,” he told journalists.
Previously, Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens) had agreed to an ambitious EU environmental law against the will of the ÖVP. This was “a more than serious breach of trust,” said Nehammer. But if the government collapsed just a few months before the parliamentary elections, the country would plunge into chaos. “I will not do that,” he said.
Chancellery wants to prevent EU law with lawsuit
Previously, Gewessler had enabled a majority for the EU Renaturation Act with her vote at a meeting of EU environment ministers in Luxembourg. Shortly after her vote, the ÖVP announced criminal charges against Gewessler for alleged abuse of office.
In addition, the Chancellery wants to prevent the EU law by filing an action for annulment before the European Court of Justice. From the ÖVP’s point of view, Gewessler has illegally ignored other cabinet members and an existing veto by the Austrian state leaders against the law.
“This is a veritable Government crisis”
Before Nehammer’s comments, other conservative cabinet colleagues of the Environment Minister had expressed their anger. The ÖVP Minister for European Policy and Constitution, Karoline Edtstadler, spoke on Austrian Radio (ORF) of a government crisis. “Federal Minister Gewessler has put us in a really difficult situation. This is a veritable government crisis,” said Edtstadler. Now it is a matter of taking the necessary steps to “redress this injustice.”
Approval from Austria was crucial
The dispute over the renaturation law has been occupying the coalition in Vienna for some time. It obliges EU countries to restore at least 20 percent of the damaged areas and marine areas by 2030 and all threatened ecosystems by 2050. The member states’ negotiators had already agreed on this with the members of the European Parliament in November. The agricultural sector in particular is critical of the law.
The final approval of the 27 EU countries for this agreement was actually considered a formality. However, the situation in the Council of Member States was close until the very end: Italy, Finland, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and Hungary spoke out against the law, according to diplomats. Belgium abstained. The necessary qualified majority of at least 15 member states and at least 65 percent of the EU population was therefore only achieved with Austria’s approval.
Environment Minister Gewessler believes he is right
After the vote in Luxembourg, Gewessler defended her vote for the renaturation law on ORF. “We all know that this is urgently needed. Where streams once flowed, there are now concrete canals; where there used to be flourishing and lively fields, there are now industrial ruins,” she explained. “The European Union is saying clearly and together today that things cannot go on like this. And we are sending a clear signal from Luxembourg for the protection of our nature, our livelihood.”
Before the vote, Nehammer had urged Gewessler to abstain from voting. However, Gewessler announced her approval. “I know that I will face resistance in Austria,” she said. “I am convinced that now is the time to pass this law,” added the climate protection minister. She is relaxed about the legal action that the Chancellery in Vienna had already threatened before the vote. In her view, there is no legal basis for this. Legal experts have come to the conclusion that approval of the law is possible and she is now taking a legally compliant path.
The Green Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler also took a “very, very calm” view of the announced legal steps in a statement. “I am completely convinced that we should continue to work calmly and with strength in the government,” he said. Austria’s Chancellor Nehammer is under great pressure. The ÖVP was overtaken by the right-wing and EU-critical FPÖ in the EU elections and relegated to second place. The FPÖ is also in first place in the polls for the election in September.
With information from Oliver Soos, ARD Studio Vienna