Family ties among senior employees of Minister of Economics Habeck have drawn sharp criticism from the opposition. Now the ministry wants to check a current personnel at the German Energy Agency.
Against the background of the ongoing debate about family ties among high-ranking employees of Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), his ministry wants to take another close look at a current personnel decision. The ministry announced that the procedure for replacing the chair of the management board of the German Energy Agency (dena) should be reviewed and, if necessary, re-established.
State Secretary for Economic Affairs Patrick Graichen reportedly informed Habeck at the beginning of the week that the new head of dena, Michael Schäfer, was his best man. “Therefore, the appearance of a possible bias cannot be completely ruled out,” said the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Habeck then asked for an internal review at the beginning of the week.
State Secretary for Economic Affairs Stefan Wenzel, as Chairman of dena’s Supervisory Board, asked the Supervisory Board on Thursday to review the procedure and, if necessary, set it up again. “There were no purely legal errors in the procedure; the resolutions of dena’s Supervisory Board are effective. But an error in an upstream pre-selection process could have given rise to the appearance of a possible bias.” The internal audit initiated by Habeck came to this conclusion.
Ministry explained selection process
According to the ministry, the selection process for the new appointment to the dena management team was carried out in several stages. A search committee was formed in advance. This consisted of Wenzel, the technically responsible State Secretary Graichen, the head of the department responsible for investment management and, as a guest, the second dena managing director. An external personnel service provider was commissioned to search for suitable candidates.
“The search committee then held interviews with selected candidates, made a pre-selection and submitted a personnel proposal to dena’s Supervisory Board based on the best qualifications.” The personnel decision itself was then up to dena’s supervisory board with the approval of the shareholders’ meeting.
series of personal relationships
The dena personnel is part of the debate about other relationships between leading employees of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The Bundestag also debated this on Wednesday. State Secretary Graichen’s sister, Verena Graichen, works for the nature conservation organization BUND and, like another brother, for the Öko-Institut. Verena Graichen, in turn, is married to the parliamentary Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Michael Kellner.
According to the ministry, Patrick Graichen and Kellner’s family connections were “addressed and disclosed accordingly” before they took up their duties in December 2021. The daily newspaper “taz” reported on it back then, and recently there have been other media reports.
The links between leading employees in the Ministry of Economics are causing sharp criticism from the opposition parties.
Sharp criticism of the opposition
There was sharp criticism from the opposition of the personal ties in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK). CSU General Secretary Martin Huber said: The Greens are making the BMWK the family ministry: “In order to make a career at Habeck, you obviously have to be part of the family. Robert Habeck has to clear up the nepotism in the BMWK around the Graichen clan, Patrick Graichen is no longer there durable as Secretary of State.”
The CDU MP Tilman Kuban spoke on Wednesday of “mafia tendencies”, Stephan Brandner from the AfD parliamentary group, at whose instigation the Bundestag discussed the topic in a current hour, spoke of “green clan structures”. Left-wing MP Klaus Ernst complained: “Obviously, the Greens and those around them today see themselves as a big family that needs to be taken care of, that you want to influence and that you want to keep away from external influences.”
At the request of the dpa news agency, the Ministry of Economic Affairs stated that precautions had been taken to prevent conflicts of interest. This applies in particular to the awarding of contracts or studies, the “organizational avoidance of possible conflicts of interest” has already been tested in previous governments.
“That’s not without”
In the debate in the Bundestag on Wednesday, some deputies from the coalition factions also said that the personal comparisons have a “taste”. “That’s not without problems. There’s no doubt about that,” remarked SPD MP Markus Hümpfer. “But it’s not forbidden either.” He accused the AfD of exaggerating the matter: “You make an elephant out of a mosquito. That’s pure populism.”
Till Steffen from the Greens described the debate initiated by the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag as “a mild breeze” and “a lame number”. The AfD faction is trying to keep a campaign against Habeck’s climate protection policy going. When the two state secretaries Graichen and Kellner were appointed 16 months ago, possible conflicts of interest had already been checked in accordance with the Bundestag’s compliance rules: “Mr. Graichen is therefore not involved in the ministry’s award procedures that affect the Öko-Institut,” said the Green Party MPs.