Traffic
Federal Supreme Court: Planning of the coastal motorway A20 illegal
BUND activists are protesting against the A20 coastal motorway in front of the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. Photo: Hendrik Schmidt/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
For environmentalists, the A20 coastal motorway is a climate-damaging disaster, while business representatives hope that it will be built. Now the Federal Administrative Court has made a first decision.
The A20 coastal motorway cannot be built in Lower Saxony for the time being. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig declared the plan approval decision for a first section between Westerstede and Jaderberg to be “illegal and not enforceable” (file no.: BVerwG 9 A 1.21).
The environmental association BUND thus achieved a partial success in court. The association had sued against the construction of the Autobahn. Another lawsuit filed by a farmer was dismissed.
The 9th Senate of the Federal Administrative Court specifically criticized the nitrogen calculation for the Garnholt fauna-flora habitat area. Here the planners made a mistake, a threshold could be exceeded. “The nitrogen calculation on which the planning was based was very precise from the start,” said the presiding judge. “An impairment of the FFH area cannot be ruled out with the required degree of certainty.”
The existing coastal motorway is to be extended from Stettin in Poland via Bad Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein to Lower Saxony. Tunnels under the Elbe and Weser are planned. With 121 kilometers alone on the Lower Saxony side, the controversial A20 is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the state.
BUND: “One of the most climate-damaging projects in the traffic route plan”
Lower Saxony’s BUND state chairwoman Susanne Gerstner was on the one hand pleased with the decision. The planning errors were obvious. However, she criticized the fact that the court had “not taken into account in any way” central issues such as climate protection and needs. “It’s a slap in the face for the younger generation. The A20 is one of the most climate-damaging projects in the Federal Transport Route Plan.” Gerstner announced further resistance to the coastal highway.
The Federal Administrative Court emphasized that it had extensively examined whether the current climate protection law had to be taken into account. However, the planning approval decision was made in 2018 – and at that time the law was not yet in force. The situation is different with the ongoing plans for other sections: “The Climate Protection Act will apply to other sections of the A20,” said the presiding judge.
Before the verdict was announced, the action group “Moor Stays Moor” held a vigil in front of the courthouse. The opponents of the motorway construction are also calling for an action weekend (July 15th to 17th) in the A20 protest camp near Westerstede in Ammerland.