Eckhard Uhlenberg

Eckhard Uhlenberg (2013)

Eckhard Uhlenberg (born February 16, 1948 in Werl ) is a German politician ( CDU ). From June 2005 to July 2010 he was Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in North Rhine-Westphalia . From July 2010 to May 2012 he was President of the Landtag of the 15th electoral term of North Rhine-Westphalia. From May 2012 to May 2017 he was 1st Vice President of the State Parliament.

Career

He graduated from elementary school in 1962 and did an agricultural apprenticeship from 1962 to 1965. This was followed by a visit to the Hardehausen Country College and the Fredeburg Country Youth Academy . He has been an agricultural master since 1974 and works as an independent farmer. He is married, has three children and lives on his farm in the Werler district of Büderich.

Political career

Eckhard Uhlenberg has been a member of the CDU since 1968. From 1970 to 1974 he was chairman of the Soest district association of the Junge Union and from 1972 to 1976 he was a member of the JU state board of Westphalia-Lippe and the JU-Germany council. From 1977 to 1995 he was chairman of the CDU district association Soest. From 1985 to 2011 he was district chairman of the CDU South Westphalia and from 1986 to 2010 deputy state chairman of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1975 to 2005 Eckhard Uhlenberg was a member of the Soest district council. From 1992 to 2005 he was chairman of the CDU state agricultural committee in North Rhine-Westphalia and from 1990 to 2010 chairman of the working group on agriculture, forestry and nature conservation of the CDU state parliamentary group.

From 1980 to 1985 he was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . Since 1990 he belonged again to the state parliament and was there deputy chairman of the CDU state parliament group. On June 24, 2005, after the historic victory of the CDU, the first in several decades, Uhlenberg was appointed to the new state government of North Rhine-Westphalia under Jürgen Rüttgers ( see also Rüttgers cabinet ) and appointed Minister for the Environment and Nature Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. He lost this office again in July 2010 after the 2010 election, which the black and yellow government lost.

Since the CDU had nevertheless become the strongest party, he was President of the 15th State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2010 to 2012. After the 16th state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia was constituted, he was Vice President as a result of the clear SPD election victory in 2012. Uhlenberg did not stand for the election of the 17th state parliament in 2017 and retired from active politics when the new state parliament was constituted on June 1, 2017.

Drinking water contamination in the Ruhr

In connection with the release and the pre- trial detention of the ministerial official Harald Friedrich in 2006, allegations were made against Uhlenberg that he had not taken sufficient action against the contamination by PFT and other poisons and that he did not support the proposed use of membrane nanofiltration and, instead, against the head of his department who called for nanotechnology Ministry of Friedrich to have filed a complaint, which the subsequent committee of inquiry of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia judged as unfounded despite the immense effort.

The Klausner cause

In January 2007, hurricane Kyrill caused considerable damage in the forests of North Rhine-Westphalia , around 25 million trees (12 million cubic meters of wood) fell victim to the storm. “Then the then NRW Environment Minister Eckhard Uhlenberg (CDU) signed far-reaching contracts with the Austrian timber company Klausner . The group not only bought the storm wood at a fixed price, but in return the state of North Rhine-Westphalia undertook to deliver wood on a large scale by 2014 on favorable terms. And significantly more than can be felled in the NRW state forest per year. "

In 2009, NRW stopped the wood deliveries because the subsequent red-green state government questioned the legality of the contracts. Thereupon the Klausner Group sued the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with an amount in dispute of 120 million euros (compensation of 56 million euros and the delivery of 1.5 million cubic meters of spruce logs), which resulted in a protracted legal dispute. The OLG Hamm ruled that the contracts were legal. The country now wanted the EU Commission to clarify whether it was a matter of hidden aid and thus a violation of EU competition law. Klausner's claim for damages was then pending at the LG Münster, which decided in September 2014 to suspend the proceedings and involve the European Court of Justice. On November 11, 2015, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) pronounced its ruling in the Klausner case, stating that in this case EU law violates national law. However, it will be up to the EU Commission to decide whether the contracts violate EU competition law. In order to avert damage to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the contracts concluded by Eckhard Uhlenberg could only be provisionally annulled after years of legal dispute, which aimed to ensure that the contracts constitute prohibited state aid and are therefore not binding.

Constituency

Eckhard Uhlenberg won the Soest I constituency in the 2005 state elections with 52.2%, in the 2010 state elections with 48.8% and in the 2012 state elections with 41.8% of the first votes.

Other offices

Since 1980 he has been an advisory board member of the Werl prison . From 1999 to June 24, 2005 he was Deputy Chairman of the WDR Administrative Board . Since 2000 he has been chairman of the supervisory board of the Bad Sassendorf saltworks . Uhlenberg was a member of the supervisory board of Westfleisch eG in 2000 and on the supervisory board of Westfleisch Finanz AG until 2004 . Uhlenberg has been President of the NRW Foundation since October 2017 .

Web links

Commons : Eckhard Uhlenberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• www.eckhard-uhlenberg.de
• Interview (June 2009)
• Eckhard Uhlenberg at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia

Individual evidence

1. ^ Welt am Sonntag, July 9, 2006: How toxic is the Ruhr water? ( Memento from December 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ ^{a b} Documentation Center AnsTagelicht.de: Harald FRIEDRICH and the (bad) drinking water from the Ruhr: Detailed chronology of all important events ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , downloaded December 8, 2013 
3. ↑ Aachener Nachrichten Online, February 4, 2011: Investigations against Höhn employees discontinued  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
4. ↑ Waz.de , August 16, 2008, Jürgen Polzin: Public prosecutor investigates Ex-Minister Höhn defends water experts
5. ↑ Waz.de , Jan Jessen, June 5, 2009: affair Friedrich. An expensive judicial farce in the Uhlenberg house
6. ↑ WAZ.de , Christoph Meinerz, Theo Schumacher, June 23, 2009: Investigative Committee. The Friedrich case has consequences .
7. ↑ Sabine Tenta: Movement in the dispute over 120 million euros - Klausner-Holz contracts before the ECJ Internet Archive ( Memento from November 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ See Sabine Tenta: Stage victory for the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in the wood dispute - ECJ judgment on Klausner wood contracts Internet Archive ( Memento from November 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
9. ^ Cyrano Kommunikation GmbH - Agency for Public Relations, Münster: NRW Foundation. Retrieved October 2, 2018 .