Karlsruhe: Federal government does not have to pay more than agreed for environmental damage from GDR

Karlsruhe: Federal government does not have to pay more than agreed for environmental damage from GDR

With reunification, the state-owned companies of the GDR were transferred to the Treuhand and privatized. It was often agreed that the investors would not be liable for environmental damage caused in the past. To finance these exemptions, the federal and state governments concluded an agreement in 1992 that regulated the distribution of costs.

Later, lump-sum compensation was agreed with individual federal states - with Thuringia in 1999 and with Saxony in 2008. This largely determined how much the federal government would have to pay. The agreements also stipulated that in certain cases and in the event of higher costs than assumed, renegotiations were to take place.

Saxony and Thuringia realized that the renovations would be more expensive than planned. However, the federal government did not want to renegotiate. The two states therefore turned to the Constitutional Court. The court has now declared that the federal states lack the authority to file an application. The federal government's refusal did not violate their rights and obligations under the Basic Law.

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1. Despite the higher costs than anticipated, Saxony and Thuringia cannot demand that the federal government pays more than agreed for environmental damage from the GDR.
2. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe has ruled that the federal states do not have the authority to file an application for renegotiations of the agreements regarding environmental damage.
3. The federal government's refusal to renegotiate the agreements did not violate the rights and obligations of Saxony and Thuringia as stipulated in the Basic Law.
4. The state-owned companies of the GDR were typically exempted from liability for environmental damage in the privatization agreements.
5. In 1992, an agreement between the federal and state governments established how the costs of these exemptions would be distributed.
6. With the agreements, lump-sum compensation was agreed with individual federal states such as Thuringia in 1999 and Saxony in 2008.
7. The federal and state governments agreed, under certain conditions and when costs exceed assumptions, to renegotiate the agreements.
8. Initially, Saxony and Thuringia believed that renovations for environmental damage would be less expensive, but the actual cost ended up being more.
9. The Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe declared that the federal government had not broken any trust with the federal states when it refused to renegotiate the agreements.

Source: www.stern.de