Minister of Climate, Energy and Utilities Lars Aagaard's (M) top officials, including the head of the ministry Lars Frelle-Petersen, have withheld information about the extent of the major delays in the expansion of the Danish electricity grid for several months, according to legal experts.
This happened even though this information was requested by several of the parties in the Danish Parliament.
This is reported by Finans.
The media outlet refers to internal meeting minutes and notes that it has been given access to.
Aagaard will again be consulted on Tuesday about the matter, which came close to costing him his position as minister earlier this year.
He was not overthrown as minister, as he has a parliamentary majority behind him. Among other things, with the help of three North Atlantic mandates, which do not normally interfere in Danish affairs.
Professor of administrative law at AAU Sten Bønsing and professor of constitutional law at SDU Frederik Waage assess that the new information raises questions about whether Aagaard has misled the Danish Parliament. And whether the minister has potentially broken the law.
- We are in a league where it would normally trigger a nose - or even force a minister to resign, Bønsing tells Finans.
A new statement, which was sent to the parties in the Danish Parliament over the weekend, shows that 141 of Energinet's 199 electricity projects are now on average 29 months behind the original schedules.
Can slow down green production
Energinet's delays can slow down the production of new green electricity and the electrification that is supposed to create the necessary demand. The statement covers the development from the first to the second quarter of this year.
The number of delayed projects has not increased during the period, but the 141 affected projects have on average advanced by three months.
Like Energinet, the minister points out that a significant part of the infrastructure company's challenges with, for example, environmental approval and procurement of components come from outside.
It was originally the media outlet Zetland that revealed that Aagaard's ministry had agreed to withhold a press release stating that 98 out of 174 construction projects had advanced.
Now the delays and the number of projects have increased. This triggered a vote of no confidence, which Aagaard survived with a narrow majority.
Lars Frelle-Petersen did not want to be interviewed by Finans.
According to the documents, he was made aware of reports about the overall increasing delays before the parties in the Danish Parliament negotiated for weeks on the expansion of the electricity grid in the autumn of 2024.
The same was true before a consultation on the matter in April this year, where several parties had requested reports with relevant figures, among other things.
In a response to Finans, the ministry states that it has been informed about the overall delays on an ongoing basis.
Aagaard says that it was assessed that the ministry was not obliged to share them with the Danish Parliament.
He states that he himself was not informed about the information at that time.
- I was never presented with that - nor would I take a position on the assessment made in the ministry that they should not be shared with the Folketinget, he tells Finans.
The Green Party's climate spokesman, Leila Stockmarr, is not impressed.
- It would honestly surprise me very much if the head of the department has not shared that knowledge with the minister, which he may also have, even if the minister claims otherwise, says Stockmarr in a written comment.
She believes that Aagaard should now "produce all documents and all correspondence".
/ritzau/
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