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Construction site in Puttgarden: Around 18 kilometers through the Baltic Sea
Photo: Frank Molter / dpa
Shortly after submitting their urgent application, the alliance against a fixed Fehmarnbelt link sensed a "surprising success": the Federal Administrative Court asked the planning authorities to temporarily suspend work in a certain area until a decision was made on the application.
Only about ten days later, there is now a decision in the urgent procedure: the judges in Leipzig have rejected the application.
It is not yet known why the Federal Administrative Court decided in this way.
"Due to the urgency of the procedure, the Federal Administrative Court initially only sent the operative part of the decision to those involved," says a court statement on the decision.
Femern A/S has to build new reefs
The action alliance wants to have the construction work on the controversial Baltic Sea tunnel stopped legally because of protected reefs along the tunnel route.
In October 2021, it filed a lawsuit against a plan change decision by Schleswig-Holstein - and in mid-January filed an urgent application to restore the suspensive effect of its lawsuit and to let the construction work rest.
Schleswig-Holstein's Economics Minister Bernd Buchholz hopes that the opponents will now make their peace with the project following the latest decision.
"This once again makes it impressively clear that there is now no turning back on the Fehmarnbelt," said the FDP politician.
“The construction work can take place.
There was and is no freeze on construction.«
The background is that the Schleswig-Holstein Ministry of Transport had permitted the destruction of the reefs on the tunnel route in a supplementary procedure to the planning approval decision - but also obliged the client Femern A/S to create new reefs elsewhere in the Baltic Sea off Fehmarn.
The construction of the approximately 18.5-kilometer road and rail tunnel between Fehmarn and the Danish island of Lolland is one of the largest infrastructure projects in the EU.
In November 2020, the Federal Administrative Court cleared the way for this by dismissing lawsuits from ferry companies and environmental protection associations against the planning approval decision.
Germany is primarily concentrating on expanding the transport links between the new tunnel and the existing road and rail network.
Construction work on the German side officially started in November 2021.
File number: BVerwG 9 VR 1.22
Apr/AFP/dpa
