Cologne Administrative Court, party-affiliated foundation fails with lawsuits for federal funding for the years 2018 to 2021, Gütsel Online, OWL live
Cologne Administrative Court, party-affiliated foundation fails with lawsuits for federal funding for the years 2018 to 2021
The Desiderius Erasmus Foundation (DES), which is said to be associated with »Alternative für Deutschland«, has failed with 2 lawsuits for the granting of federal funding for its educational work before the Cologne Administrative Court. For the years 2018, 2019 and 2021 she is not entitled to a claim, the court decided in a recent judgement. The court dismissed the action relating to the year 2020 as already inadmissible without examining the substance.
The #Federal Republic of #Germany establishes party-affiliated foundations on the basis of the respective budget law and assumes in its previous funding practice that a foundation is to be funded if the associated party moves into the Bundestag in 2 consecutive federal elections. This practice is based on a joint proposal by party-affiliated foundations from 1998. For the years 2018 to 2021, the federal budget laws did not provide for any funding for the DES, as the party in question was expected to move into the Bundestag in 2017. The Federal Office of Administration therefore rejected the DES funding applications. The DES is opposing this with its lawsuits and asserting a constitutional right to participate in the funding of party-affiliated foundations.
The administrative court did not support the IST and explained the reasoning in the matter: The principle of equal treatment areas that within the framework of the promotion of party-affiliated foundations all permanent, important political basic currents in the Federal Republic of Germany are adequately taken into account. When a party related to a foundation meets these requirements, the defendant must determine on the basis of factual and arbitrary criteria. The criterion of entering the Bundestag twice in succession is not legally objectionable. It offers a practical, easily maintained and politically neutral way of determining the durability and weight of a political current. The mere fact that the criterion is based on a proposal from party-affiliated foundations does not make it irrelevant. The federal government is also not obliged to use alternative criteria such as state election results for its funding. It is true that the party in question entered the German Bundestag for the second time after the 2021 federal election. However, this does not result in an obligation to grant DES a proportionate subsidy at least for the year 2021. In comparable cases, other party-affiliated foundations would not have received funding until the year following the federal election at the earliest.
The lawsuit relating to the year 2020 was already inadmissible because the plaintiff had missed the objection period.
The plaintiff can appeal against the judgment in the case 16 K 2526/19, which concerns the funding for the years 2018, 2019 and 2021. She can file an application for admission of an appeal against the judgment in the case 16 K 1916/20 (funding year 2020). The Higher Administrative Court for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster would decide on both appeals.
File numbers 16 K 2526/19, 16 K 1916/20, judgments of August 12, 2022.