Whether power lines or roads: the growing bureaucracy in Germany has increasingly slowed down planning and construction. That should change now. The federal and state governments have decided on a pact for more speed.
More speed in the construction of power lines, apartments or transport routes: At their top meeting in the Chancellery, the federal and state governments decided on a comprehensive package to speed up planning and approvals. Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that the planned de-bureaucratization was a first in Germany “on these dimensions”.
The federal and state governments agreed on a 28-page “pact for accelerating planning, approval and implementation”. It should help ensure that “Germany as a business location remains competitive,” it says in the resolution. The first results should be available in the first quarter of 2024.
About 100 Individual regulations
The pact provides for “fundamental changes” in order to implement projects in the areas of construction, energy and transport more quickly, said Scholz. The package includes “probably 100 individual regulations” that would speed things up “in many areas of daily life”.
Hesse’s Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU), the chairman of the Prime Minister’s Conference, spoke of a “good move and an important step”. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) said: “This decision really has substance.” It also provides for the easier expansion of mobile phone networks. Here, approval for new transmission towers should be deemed to have been granted when a specified deadline has expired.
Acceleration in the transport, energy and construction sectors
In general, planning and approval procedures should be digitalized and thereby massively accelerated. With regard to environmental impact assessments, it is planned that larger wind turbines in the transport and energy sectors will not require approval in the future.
In the construction sector, type approvals for serial construction should automatically apply nationwide and do not have to be applied for again in every federal state. In addition, the legal possibility should be created for construction work to begin before the necessary notice has been given.
The federal and state governments launched the pact during their talks in June. At that time, Scholz campaigned for a “Germany pace”. On Monday, he again pointed to the accelerated establishment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals since last year to replace lost Russian gas deliveries as a model.
Praise from the Union
Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz praised the agreement, but saw the states and not Scholz as the driving force behind it. “It’s good that the federal states have maintained the pressure and prevailed when it comes to accelerating planning,” he told the Germany editorial network.
The Regulatory Control Council (NKR), an independent advisory body to the federal government, welcomed the agreement as “overdue”. NKR chairman Lutz Goebel emphasized that it was good that Scholz had declared the issue “a top priority”.