The Federal Administrative Court has strengthened the right of action for the Federal Nature Conservation Association (BN) and other environmental organizations in Bavaria. According to the conviction of Germany’s top administrative judges, the administrative courts in the Free State must not declare lawsuits by nature conservationists against construction projects inadmissible with the argument that they have been completed and put into operation in the meantime. Instead, they have to decide on lawsuits, even if the construction of the project in question is already well advanced. If successful, the environmental organizations could also achieve subsequent improvements for nature conservation in the controversial project, according to the tenor of Tuesday’s decision.
The BN was very relieved about the Leipzig judge’s verdict. “The Federal Administrative Court has clearly strengthened our rights,” says the BN’s state manager and the association’s in-house lawyer, Peter Rottner. “This is very important – especially in times of climate change and increasing land use.” Rottner was confident that the decision “can curb the frequent practice in Bavaria of hastily creating facts with chainsaws and excavators instead of waiting until the courts have decided on the respective dispute”.
Specifically, the judgment concerns the thermal baths in Lindau on Lake Constance. The BN failed twice before the Bavarian administrative courts in its fight against the complex, which has been in operation since 2021. First, the judges rejected an application for a construction freeze in summary proceedings. Their argument: environmental organizations have no right to sue against building permits. They later dismissed the lawsuit against the zoning plan for the project. This time the reason given was that the construction work on the thermal baths had progressed so far that the lawsuit was unnecessary.
Conservationists hope for subsequent improvements
The Leipzig judges have now classified this decision. The legal proceedings regarding the land use planning for the thermal baths must be reopened before the Bavarian Administrative Court. The BN man Rottner hopes to be able to achieve subsequent improvements for nature conservation, especially the bird life, around the thermal baths in the new process. For example, restrictions on the complex’s lighting, which extends far into the lake. According to Rottner, it is a serious problem for bird life. In addition, additional compensatory measures must be discussed.
The willingness to sue by nature conservation organizations has been increasing for years. From the point of view of many local and district groups, the right of their parent organizations to sue is increasingly the last chance to defend themselves against the destruction of nature. BN’s in-house lawyer Rottner alone is currently handling almost 50 legal proceedings, including at least 35 lawsuits. The State Association for the Protection of Birds (LBV) is now taking the designation of commercial areas and other construction projects to court much more frequently than in the past. The right of nature conservation organizations to sue is enshrined in the Aarhus Convention, which Germany and 46 other countries signed in 1998.