Justice has decided

EIA affair: Justice still investigating after three years

The public prosecutor's office in Graz with spokesperson Hansjörg Bacher has closed the investigation after three years.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/Sepp Pail, Jürgen Radspieler)

One of the country's biggest scandals involving the Styrian environmental authority A13 and the mismanagement of environmental impact assessments kept the authorities and the judiciary busy for three years. Now the public prosecutor's office has made a decision: No charges will be brought against any of the eight accused!

The affair came to light almost exactly three years ago, on November 21, 2021, through a report in the "Krone" newspaper. The central accusation was that environmental proceedings were handled improperly and in favor of the project applicants by leading officials in Department 13.

Shortly thereafter, the invective made waves. The head of department made fun of concerned citizens and NGOs in rewritten pop songs. There was even a video. On the same day, the top official was suspended by Ursula Lackner (SPÖ), the provincial councillor for the environment; the EIA officer was removed from the department and assigned to another task.

Federal Court of Audit confirmed allegations
The auditors from the Federal Audit Office then spent five months tearing apart the authority in Stempfergasse in Graz - and finally came to a devastating conclusion in February 2023. The most serious point of criticism came to light after reviewing a good 12,000 emails from the head of department and the EIA officer: in at least three cases, project applicants (e.g. a company that wants to build a hydropower plant) and not the officials are said to have formulated parts of notifications. In addition, in at least two cases the A13 sent draft decisions to project applicants for approval.

Poor organization, lengthy procedures and dubious money flows to experts were also criticized.

The planned pumped storage facility on the Koralm was also targeted.

(Bild: Sepp Pail)

"No abuse of authority"
This makes the decision by the Graz public prosecutor's office all the more surprising: "The investigation proceedings were discontinued with regard to all of the accused, as the investigations revealed no evidence of abuse of office or other criminally relevant conduct by decision-makers and others involved in the EIA procedures," announced public prosecutor Christian Kroschl on Thursday morning in response to an inquiry by "Krone".

StA spokesman Hansjörg Bacher explains why the investigation took so long: "The facts of the case were extremely complex and extensive, new facts were constantly added during the course of the proceedings, and the expert was changed four times at the BAK (Federal Office for the Prevention and Combating of Corruption, editor's note)".

Disciplinary proceedings are ongoing
"The investigation has taken a very long time, it is good that there is finally a decision," says Günther Lippitsch, Head of Human Resources at the Province of Styria, in an initial reaction. Disciplinary proceedings against the former head of department are still ongoing, and the Provincial Administrative Court also still has to deal with the case.