Berlin Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) wants to present his own reform concept so that large infrastructure projects can progress more quickly. According to government circles, Wissing wants to present an “autumn package”. In addition to his demand to include a good infrastructure as a state goal in the Basic Law, this includes the idea of transferring the law already passed for the construction of liquid gas terminals (LNG Acceleration Act) to transport projects and thus putting nature conservation concerns on the back burner. The possibility of taking legal action against a project is also to be limited in future in the planning process.
“In November we will present a package of laws containing a whole range of measures,” said Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Oliver Luksic (FDP). He was confident that the Federal Cabinet will agree.
The background to the initiative is the ongoing dispute within the traffic light coalition. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) presented a draft law to speed up proceedings in the administrative courts that deal with important infrastructure projects. However, the departmental vote showed that the environmental department in particular only wants to take part if the procedures serve the energy and mobility transition or are intended to secure the energy supply. Road projects, airports, ports or waterways should therefore not be included.
The Greens don’t want to further strain their clientele
The Ministry of Transport, in turn, rejects this and emphasizes the outstanding importance of the infrastructure, while the Ministry of Economics does not want to stop the environment department. Since then, there has been no agreement, although the draft should actually have been approved by the cabinet in mid-October.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Above all, nature conservation organizations had sharply criticized Buschmann’s project – and were thus able to gain the support of the Greens. After the Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck has already more than claimed his own clientele with the LNG law and with the extended operating times of nuclear power plants, the Greens obviously want to spare their supporters.
>> Read the guest commentary by Volker Wissing here: The path to the future can only succeed with a modern infrastructure
The traffic light coalition wants to “ensure speed in infrastructure expansion”, as stated in the coalition agreement. All the necessary measures should actually be “taken and enforced in the first year” of the new government. However, in light of a gas crisis, the coalition has so far only been able to pass a law to speed up the construction of LNG terminals. At the time, the FDP had failed to demand the regulation for other important infrastructure projects.
The FDP, on the other hand, receives support from the CDU. “We simply have to get faster with important infrastructure projects in Germany,” said Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (FDP) of North Rhine-Westphalia to the Handelsblatt. “Procedures need to be accelerated. And we can see that it works,” said Wüst.
The federal government has shown itself to be flexible with the LNG law. “This flexibility should serve us as a blueprint in other areas, especially for the urgently needed renewal of our transport infrastructure.”
NRW Prime Minister Wüst calls for no environmental impact assessment
Like Wissing, Wüst also calls for “quick realization of the necessary replacement new constructions, especially bridges”. The goals are “pure replacement new buildings without complete planning approval procedures and costly environmental impact assessments, shorter deadlines in legislative procedures or shortening the number of instances” before the courts. This should also apply in the future if a replacement building is built larger than before in view of the sharp increase in traffic.
Wissing had already announced in the Handelsblatt that infrastructure would be a state goal in the Basic Law. This is intended to ensure that legal action is limited to the Federal Administrative Court. “Infrastructure is of such vital importance that it needs a prominent place in our legal system,” the minister said.
As it was said in government circles, as after the reunification, projects of particular importance should be provided with shortened legal proceedings. This should include European infrastructure projects as well as rail projects. Spatial planning procedures should be limited to a maximum of seven months.
As Digital Minister, Wissing relies on the “consistent digitization of planning and approval procedures”, which should also apply to citizen participation. “Digital only” should apply and help to recognize similar inputs with the help of artificial intelligence and to answer them immediately, as the ministry says. Wissing himself emphasizes that he does not want to push back environmental and nature conservation or citizen participation.
>> Read here: Wissing establishes a staff unit for infrastructure security
However, there is “double work” during the planning. The planning itself should only take place digitally (Building Information Modeling) and thus help to save personnel and time.
The FDP parliamentary group supports their minister. She has already decided on a paper and listed measures with which she wants to speed up the process. These coincide with Wissing’s plans. The parliamentary group is calling for a deadline for objections, an obligation for environmental organizations to cooperate and updated and standardized species protection lists.
“We want to plan faster, we want to build faster,” says FDP parliamentary group leader Carina Konrad. “We are not satisfied with the fact that the crisis is supposed to be the end of prosperity, peace and freedom.”
FDP Secretary of State for Transport Luksic refers to the long planning period for rail projects: it usually takes 20 years, he says, in view of the resistance of the Greens to simplify the procedures and, under certain circumstances, to speed them up by having fewer rights of objection. Incidentally, this applies “not only to roads – it is also a problem with cycle paths”.
More: It won’t get better any time soon – the construction industry is waiting in vain for bridge orders