800,000 euros in funding: Ministry threatens young Tyrolean farmers with lawsuits
die According to the opinion of the BMKÖS and the AWS, the Tyrolean young farmers’ association/rural youth has not explained in a comprehensible manner that their local and district associations are not attributable to the Tyrolean Farmers’ Association. 119 local and district associations are therefore being asked to repay again with the payment deadline of January 17th. In the meantime, one association has paid back the funding in full.A UTPS procedure is awaited for funding for the Senior Citizens’ Association.
INNSBRUCK. The Federal Ministry for Art, Culture, Public Service and Sport (BMKÖS) together with Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (AWS) conducts in-depth examinations of a number of organizations that have received funding from the NPO fund. The question at stake is whether these organisations, which are formally non-profit associations and thus meet the application requirements for the NPO fund, are also to be regarded as part of a party on the basis of the Political Parties Act and are therefore excluded from the NPO fund.
Tyrolean young farmers / rural youth
In the course of the audits, 120 local and district associations of the Tyrolean “Jungbauernschaft/Landjugend” submitted identical statements and documents, which showed that they belonged to the Tiroler Bauernbund, a sub-organization of the ÖVP Tirol, and were therefore themselves a sub-organization within the meaning of the party law are to be qualified. The reason essentially:
The state organization of the Tyrolean “Jungbauernschaft/Landjugend” is a legally dependent section of the Tyrolean Farmers’ Association, which in turn is a sub-organization of the ÖVP Tirol, both according to its own description and according to the statutes of the ÖVP Tirol. The 120 local and district associations of the “Young Farmers’ Association/Country Youth” describe themselves as branch associations of the main association, the Tyrolean Farmers’ Union. From this, elements of their statutes, which are decisive for their independent action, are mandatory.
recovery
On the basis of this legal assessment, part of the AWS funding from the NPO fund totaling EUR 816,752.15 was paid on September 12, 2022 with a payment deadline of October 10, 2022 by the audited 120 local and district associations of the Tyrolean “Jungbauernschaft/Landjugend”. reclaimed. On October 10, 2022 and thus before the payment deadline expired, the Tyrolean Young Farmers’ Association/Country Youth needed an extension of the deadline to provide additional documents. On October 27, the regional organization of the Tyrolean “Jungbauernschaft/Landjugend” submitted documents on behalf of its branch associations in which the legal opinion of the BMKÖS was disputed. In particular, a regulation on the relationship between branch associations of the Tyrolean Farmers’ Union and the state organization of the ÖVP Tyrol WILL be brought to the meeting. However, the legal assessment of the BMKÖS does not aim at this relationship, but at the relationship between the branch associations and their main association – that is the Tyrolean Farmers’ Association. The fact that the latter is part of the ÖVP Tirol was never denied.
Articles on the Tyrolean Young Farmers Association of the District Journals Tyrol can be found here
Young farmers part of the Farmers’ Union
Furthermore, it is argued in the documents that the described, close legal relationship between the main association of the Tyrolean farmers’ association and its branch associations, the local and district organizations of the “Jungbauernschaft/Landjugend” can be ended by the last. Although this is legally correct, the relationship between the main association of the Tyrolean farmers’ association and its branch associations at the respective time of the applications to the NPO fund is legally decisive. All in all, the Tyrolean “Young Farmers’ Association/Country Youth” was given incomprehensibly in some cases that their local and district associations were not to be attributed to the Tyrolean Farmers’ Association. 119 local and district associations are therefore being asked to repay again with the payment deadline of January 17th. In the meantime, one association has paid back the funding in full.
In the event that the clubs concerned refuse to make the repayment, the BMKÖS is making preparations for judicial clarification on the basis of model lawsuits in which the Republic would be represented by the Finanzprokuratur.
Seniors Association
The examinations of the Seniorenbund state organizations in Upper Austria, Carinthia, Tyrol, Vienna and Vorarlberg are about associations that are formally non-profit and were therefore eligible to apply to the NPO fund. These associations have the same name or the corresponding sub-organizations of the ÖVP at state, district and local level and also have other things in common. This results in the possibility that the non-profit associations and the respective sub-organization are to be regarded as a unit. This would mean that the non-profit associations would be part of the ÖVP and excluded from the NPO fund.
It was therefore checked in one step whether the clubs and the respective sub-organization with the same or the same name have a first clear legal separation. The audited organizations were able to demonstrate this. In the case of the Vorarlberg Senior Citizens’ Association, this was done on the basis of documents that were subsequently submitted.
No clear assessment is possible on the basis of previous case law. In addition to the legal structure of the organizations, the question of whether a de facto economic unit of the respective non-profit association and the corresponding sub-organization of the ÖVP must be assumed is also decisive in this examination. As part of the corresponding test steps, the Senior Citizens’ Association organizations submitted extensive documents that were checked by the BMKÖS. However, based on these documents, a conclusive legal assessment as to whether a de facto economic separation exists is not possible.
UPTS procedure is awaited
In the next step, a financial audit would have to be carried out, in the course of which the accounts of both the clubs and the relevant party organizations would have to be inspected. Such an examination would be associated with a very high level of administration and costs for the Republic. At the same time, proceedings are pending with the Independent Party Transparency Senate (UPTS, responsible for imposing sanctions for violations of the party law). Since this procedure examines legal questions that are substantively the same and therefore relevant for the decision to be made by the BMKÖS, a comprehensive and in-depth financial review would be disproportionate from today’s perspective. Has the BMKÖS decided, in coordination with the Finanzprokuratur, to wait for the result of the UPTS procedure before further steps are taken.
NPO fund
The NPO fund was set up in spring 2020 and is a unified tool to support the socially and economically important non-profit sector in the COVID crisis. To date, over 57,000 applications have been approved and around EUR 800 million in aid has been paid out. Writes of the NPO-Fonds Based on the NPO-Fonds-Gesetz, which excludes political parties and sub-organizations of political parties from the fund with reference to the Party Act (§ 2 No. 1). Organizations that are considered to be “close organisations” within the meaning of the Political Parties Act (§ 2 No. 3) or that have any other close relationship to a party are not excluded from the NPO fund. Subsidies from the NPO fund are based on a civil law contract between the respective sponsoring organization and the AWS, which handles the NPO fund in the name and on the account of the Republic. The Republic, represented by the Finanzprokuratur, will sue for a refund that the organization concerned fails to comply with after repeated requests before a civil court.