The former Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet (CDU), will become the new Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the RAG Foundation. Laschet was appointed to the office by the foundation board of trustees on Monday at the suggestion of Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck, the Federal Ministry of Economics announced. The RAG Foundation takes care of the financing of the so-called perpetual obligations that arise after the exit from German hard coal mining. Laschet succeeds entrepreneur Jürgen Großmann as Chairman of the Board of Trustees.

Habeck emphasized: "Armin Laschet knows the history of hard coal mining like no other: As the son of a foreman, he grew up with mining, and as Prime Minister of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia he was closely involved in the exit from hard coal mining."

The RAG-Foundation was founded on June 26, 2007 to manage the settlement of subsidized German hard coal mining and to ensure the financing of the perpetual obligations from German hard coal mining. The value of the foundation's assets at the end of 2021 was around 21.3 billion euros.

The "forever quests" are consequences of mining with no end in sight. The most costly area is the constant pumping up of mine water, which naturally rises after coal mining has ended, but should not come close to groundwater and therefore drinking water. It is pumped to the surface and then discharged into rivers.

Also at the suggestion of the federal government, two new members of the board of trustees were named: the chairman of the board of the state association for renewable energies in North Rhine-Westphalia, Reiner Priggen, and Steag boss Andreas Reichel.

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