The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) must grant a journalist access to documents relating to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and the establishment and activities of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Climate Foundation. This was decided by the Administrative Court (VG) Berlin (Ref.: 2 K 181/22 of 18 December 2023). The court based its decision on a provision of the Environmental Information Act (Section 3 (1) UIG). According to this provision, every person is „entitled to free access to environmental information“ held by a government or other public administration bodies „without having to demonstrate a legal interest“. The court did not accept the argument that the journalist's request for information was associated with a disproportionately high administrative burden. This also applies to the objection that some of the documents were subject to confidentiality. In the opinion of the VG, the Ministry had not explained this precisely enough. The decision is not yet final.

The contact person for all questions relating to data protection and access to information in our practice is Rechtsanwalt Dr Dominik Lück.