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The controversial relocation of the Federal Environment Agency is apparently not set in stone yet. According to the Minister of the Environment, Leonore Gewessler (Greens), the project announced in 2017 is currently being evaluated. However, the Ministry does not want to reveal much more about this. According to the Federal Environment Agency, the roughly 500 affected employees are informed that relocation plans have been suspended for the time being.
The transfer of the Federal Environment Agency from Vienna to Klosterneuburg was announced by the then Minister of the Environment, Andrä Rupprechter, the Governor of Lower Austria, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, and the Mayor of Klosterneuburg, Stefan Schmuckenschlager, (all ÖVP) in October 2017. The plans drew much criticism, for example from employees in the office itself, from other parties, the Chamber of Labor, environmental organizations and the city of Vienna, which tried to stay in the capital. However, in November 2018, the then Minister of the Environment, Elisabeth Köstinger (ÖVP), announced as part of the turquoise blue government that the measure was fixed. Consequently, the new building was already fully financed and its completion is planned for 2023.
In a parliamentary response to a question from Minister Gewessler, there is now talk of a new assessment. “For UBA GmbH, the previous departments have already decided to move from Vienna to Klosterneuburg to a new building that has not yet been built, but is currently still subject to an internal evaluation,” it says there.
The Federal Environment Agency itself is eagerly awaiting more information from the responsible ministry, as a spokeswoman announced on Wednesday. Employees have been informed about the evaluation since the spring, it was announced. Considerations about a possible room and a functional concept at the new Klosterneuburg location have been put on hold for the time being, due to the crown, however, according to the spokeswoman.
According to a report from the “Wiener Zeitung”, the city of Vienna offered several alternative options to keep the Federal Environment Agency in Vienna. In Lower Austria it was pointed out that the federal government had to make the decision. It is not known exactly when the evaluation of the Ministry of the Environment will be completed.
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