Court decides:

Koralm power plant: next defeat for operators

This is where the pumped storage power plant should have been built

(Bild: Sepp Pail)

In addition to the Federal Administrative Court, the Constitutional Court has now also thrown a spanner in the works for the operators of the pumped storage power plant planned on the Koralm. 

Discussions about the pumped storage power plant planned in western Styria have been going on for years. 17 parties objected to the EIA approval decision at the Federal Administrative Court (BVwG) - and it ruled in their favor on some points. Among other things, the Koralpe Natura 2000 area had not yet been designated as a European protected area by the Styrian provincial government, meaning that a nature impact assessment was not possible. This was the state of affairs in July 2023

The next instance then came into play - the Administrative Court. The project applicants appealed to the court to assert the illegality of the landscape conservation area ordinance. The court has now ruled that it cannot revoke the ordinance as the contested decision is not precedent-setting, i.e. not relevant for future cases. Nor had the project applicants' constitutional rights been violated. The handling of the complaint was therefore rejected. The project applicants now have six weeks to lodge an appeal with the Administrative Court.

Environmentalists pleased
For Wolfgang Rehm from the environmental organization Virus, this is another positive sign: "In this first review procedure, the project applicants defended the ordinance issued in their favour and, apparently for reasons of expediency, did a 180-degree U-turn in the second procedure they brought before the Constitutional Court and claimed the opposite. This spook is now over."