Dhe President of the Federal Administrative Court, Andreas Korbmacher, expects that infrastructure projects in Germany will be implemented more quickly in the future. “We are in a phase in which the legislation on this has picked up speed, which was previously unknown,” said Korbmacher on Wednesday at the annual press conference of the highest German administrative court.
At the same time, however, this means that compromises have to be made, for example in terms of nature conservation, he added. With the reforms to speed things up, new legal issues have also emerged, which in turn could lead to new lawsuits.
Declining number of lawsuits
So far, however, there has not been a wave of proceedings on infrastructure projects at the Federal Administrative Court. On the contrary, the overall downward trend in the number of cases received is also evident here. In the 2022 reporting year, there were only four new cases in the area of trunk roads, for which the Federal Administrative Court is responsible in the first instance; last year there were 17.
Overall, the number of lawsuits against infrastructure projects decided by the court of first and last instance fell from 37 in 2021 to 23 in 2022. Two lawsuits are pending over disputes over LNG terminals. “But so far we have not had any lawsuits that fundamentally attack the terminal,” explained Korbmacher. One of the proceedings regarding the LNG terminal in Wilhelmshaven, which is being negotiated in the summer, is about a connecting line, for example.
New Senate for planning procedures
In anticipation of future lawsuits against infrastructure projects, such as the expansion of wind energy and new power lines, the Federal Administrative Court will get an additional senate. The new Senate for planning procedures will probably be set up in the second half of the year, said Korbmacher.
Regarding the recently adopted speed-up regulations in the administrative court system, the court president said that “we can work” with the amendment, which takes up criticism from the judges. However, the acceleration potential in administrative procedures is relatively exhausted overall. It is necessary that the administrative courts at state level are well equipped in terms of personnel and material.
Missing projects on climate impacts
Regarding the requirements of the Federal Constitutional Court to take climate impacts into account, for example when building new roads, Korbmacher said that his court had decided that one had to proceed “with a sense of proportion”. As long as there are no more specific specifications, assessments in the Federal Transport Route Plan, from the Federal Environment Agency or from non-governmental organizations should be used. The court president spoke of a “obligation” on the part of the authorities to provide the current state of scientific knowledge on the effects of climate change in the form of handouts. The nitrogen guidelines, for example, help with nature conservation tests. “We also need something like this in the climate sector,” said Korbmacher.