Environmental umbrella organization and nature conservation association welcome VfGH ruling: environmental protection and the rule of law strengthened

• Suspensive effect in nature conservation proceedings confirmed – Mollner gas drilling illegal
• Constitutional Court strengthens the rule of law in environmental protection – Upper Austria’s nature conservation law must be renovated

08.01.2025 (UWD) – As it became known today, the Constitutional Court (VfGH) has repealed the exclusion of the suspensive effect for complaints under the Upper Austrian Nature Conservation Act as unconstitutional in a landmark ruling. The complaint from the environmental umbrella organization (UWD) and the Austrian Nature Conservation Association should actually have prevented gas drilling in the winter of 2024 for the time being due to its suspensive effect. The State Administrative Court must now overturn the decision of the Nature Conservation Department of the State of Upper Austria, in which the suspensive effect was rejected.

While the appeal process against the approval decision for the gas drilling in the Jaidhaus nature reserve is still open, the authority has already received a new decision to continue further tests by the operator. “With its findings, the Constitutional Court has strengthened legal protection and the rule of law. This judgment applies with immediate effect and is a great success for environmental protection and – no less important – for fundamentally effective legal protection in Austria in the sense of the Aarhus Convention. A blanket exclusion of the suspensory effect in the event of complaints could mean irreversible damage to existing ecosystems – even before a decision has been made on the final legal conformity of a project. In this specific case, protected natural areas near the Kalkalpen National Park were massively threatened by the gas test drilling in Molln – the VfGH ruling makes it clear that this should not have happened without the final legal clarification,” emphasizes Franz MaierPresident of the environmental umbrella organization.

Need for action: Renovation of the Upper Austrian Nature Conservation Act is overdue
The decision of the Constitutional Court means that the controversial Section 43a of the Upper Austrian Nature Conservation Act, which provided for the exclusion of the suspensive effect of complaints, is now invalid. The approval of the gas test drilling therefore rests on an unconstitutional basis. “The judgment clearly shows that the previous interventions should not have taken place. It is now imperative to reform the Upper Austrian Nature Conservation Actin order to prevent such unlawful interference with nature in the future and to further strengthen effective legal protection in accordance with the Aarhus Convention and the rule of law. The interests of a foreign mining company cannot be allowed to take precedence over the protection of our most valuable natural areas. Further planned tests are therefore inadmissible until the Upper Austrian State Administrative Court has decided on the appeal against the decision,” says Thomas WrbkaPresident of the Austrian Nature Conservation Association.