Charges brought against Austria’s Gewessler for rogue nature restoration vote

5 months ago 21

The centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) has accused its Environment Minister, Leonore Gewessler, of knowingly voting illegally in favour of the controversial EU nature restoration law, going against the Chancellery’s own legal service.

The EU adopted the nature restoration law, on Monday (17 June), with a narrow majority. Austrian Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler’s (Greens) vote helped swing the outcome by going against the country’s constitution, the centre-right ÖVP (EPP), at the helm of the government, alleges.

In an eight-page legal document to be sent to the public prosecutor, seen by Euractiv, the conservative party argues why the green minister had “knowingly” misused her authority – which could constitute an offence, which could carry a possible jail term of up to ten years, according to Austrian penal law.

In Austria, the nine regional states are nominally in charge of environmental issues – government ministers are bound to follow the unanimous direction from these states. Gewessler was initially instructed to vote against the nature restoration law at the EU level, based on the wishes of all nine regional governments.

Vienna, one of the nine states, however, changed its position days before the EU environment ministers vote in Luxembourg on Monday.

Gewessler argued that this legally gave her the right to vote in favour.

But the ÖVP contends that the regions’ position procedurally remained unchanged – meaning that Gewessler broke the constitution when voting in favour of the legal text.

A reported internal governmental analysis by the country’s constitutional services supports this argument on this constitutional procedure.

They also argue that the ÖVP’s own agriculture minister had a shared competence on the law, meaning the Greens’ Gewessler was not allowed to vote on her own.

The Greens cite legal analyses they ordered to argue that no breach of took place.

The ÖVP challenges this claim, arguing that the Greens’ analyses constitute “private expertise” compared to the assessment done by the Chancellery’s legal service.

Thus, the charges, dated 19 June, stress: the legal interpretation cited by the Greens can’t “definitively exculpate” Gewessler — alleviating her of guilt — for breaching the constitution with her vote in favour of the nature restoration law.

The conservatives plan to file the charges, on Thursday (20 June), with the Viennese public prosecutors.

But Gewessler said she is “very relaxed about any legal action,” talking to journalists on the fringes of the Austrian World Summit (AWS) in Vienna, APA reported.

According to her, she had approved the EU directive in accordance with Austrian law: “I am not only following the legal situation, but also a long-standing practice”, she said.

In response to the accusations, she citied the centre-right’s vote against Romania and Bulgaria joining Schengen, despite the Greens being in favour.

The criminal charges are likely to be the most immediate consequence for the minister, she remains environment minister.

Despite the legal charges, the ÖVP-Greens government still survives.

Meanwhile, the legal move from the Austrian conservatives to have EU judges annul the law is looking unlikely to be successful, argues Claudia Wutscher, a Viennese expert of EU law.

(Edited by Rahnish Singh, Aurélie Pugnet)