The traffic light coalition had agreed to enable faster construction.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The federal and state governments will not agree on a pact to speed up planning and approval processes at the meeting of the prime ministers with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) scheduled for Thursday. The topic is on the agenda of the meeting once again. However, the federal government will at most submit a report, consultations are not planned. The Handelsblatt learned this from government circles.
The prime ministers reacted with outrage to the renewed delay. “It’s the federal government’s turn, the states are ready,” said Lower Saxony’s Stephan Weil (SPD), chairman of the prime ministers’ conference, to the Handelsblatt.
Hendrik Wüst, Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, criticized: “The federal government is stopping brutally where it finally needs a lot more speed.”
It is “almost a joke that the traffic light has been red for practically a year due to the ongoing dispute between the SPD, FDP and Greens at federal level in accelerating planning and approvals,” said the CDU politician to the Handelsblatt. “The grandiose announcements from the coalition agreement were followed only by disappointments.”
The SPD, Greens and FDP dedicated three pages to the topic in their 2021 coalition agreement in order to be able to build faster. Among other things, they wanted to “increase the human and technical capacities of authorities and courts” and advance “digitization at all levels”.
The chairman of the conference of prime ministers and his deputy would like the chancellor and the federal government to speed up the planning and approval process.
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
There was also talk of a “personnel and further training offensive”, as well as “acceleration agencies” for the federal, state and local governments and standardized “IT interfaces” between the federal and state governments.
No movement in planning and approval procedures
It took many months before the Chancellery submitted an initial proposal to the federal states entitled “Pact for planning, approval and implementation acceleration”. This is a “national effort,” as the 13-page document said.
Among other things, the federal government suggested digitizing procedures in the state and local authorities and creating a pool of federal and state personnel so that sufficient specialists can work on projects on site. Despite constitutional concerns, this is “critical to success”.
The federal states then demanded changes and, above all, concrete commitments. It was said in the paper that there were too many “test orders”. A federal-state working group was then supposed to clarify the first proposal by December if possible and clarify financing issues so that the pact could be decided in 2022. But the committee did not meet – not until today.
>> Read here: Why building in Germany is becoming increasingly difficult
In March of this year, the prime ministers complained in a letter to Chancellor Scholz that there had been no movement for months. This circumstance is “very regrettable”, wrote the chairman Weil and his deputy Wüst. The chancellor should “agree a schedule for further action as soon as possible”, they demanded.
Wust on upcoming federal-state consultations: “A bitter disappointment”
The Chancellery then rejected another appointment in May and pointed out that there was still a need for coordination within the coalition. Since then, the meeting on this Thursday has been a possible date for a decision.
“Once again, the federal government has ensured that the content of the topic cannot be discussed at the federal-state consultations this week,” said Prime Minister Wüst. “This is a bitter disappointment for the federal states and everyone else who cares about Germany as a business location.” The federal government is causing “great damage to Germany as an industrial location”.
>> Read here: Ten cases in which the new Germany pace fails
A government spokesman declined to comment on “internal planning”. In response to a question from the economic politician of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Stefan Rouenhoff, the federal government justified the renewed delay by pointing out that it was working out “an ambitious pact to speed up planning, approval and implementation by the federal and state governments”. At the prime ministers’ conference on June 15, “the status of the deliberations will be reported on”.
“The speed pact announced by the Chancellor is increasingly turning out to be a vain thing,” criticized Rouenhoff. “Instead of delivering faster planning and approval procedures, the traffic light government is blocked by public disputes.”
This harms the location, as important future projects in the industrial sector and the modernization of the infrastructure would be slowed down, said the CDU politician. As it was said in state circles, the federal government will have to explain how things will continue.
More: Wissing wants to build motorways faster – also for military emergencies