Wall lizards, hive beetles, the small horseshoe bat and the hemlock water fennel have already delayed construction projects in Germany. Deforestation for a Tesla factory is now stalling - for environmental reasons. The economy demands faster processes.
Potsdam / Frankfurt (dpa) - In view of sluggish large-scale projects such as the Tesla factory in Brandenburg, business associations and economists are demanding faster processes in Germany.
The German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) complains that the start-up is too long. The employer-oriented Institute of German Business (IW) demands more courage. Politics are voicing to limit legal action, for example from environmental associations.
"Planning and approval procedures for company settlements in Germany take a daunting time," said Achim Dercks, Vice General Manager of the DIHK. "Above all, the planning procedures consist of too many stages. Too often, companies experience that the complexity of the procedures makes it easy to specifically prevent individual projects."
After the clearing stop on the site for the planned Tesla factory in Grünheide near Berlin, the debate about delays in construction projects has boiled up. The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG) initially prohibited forest clearing following a complaint from the Green League Brandenburg environmental association. The State Environment Agency had approved the early start of tree felling, and approval for the construction of the factory is still pending. As long as the process is not completed, no facts should be created and no damage to nature that can be reversed, says the Green League.
A longer stop could jeopardize the schedule for the electric car factory. A decision by the OVG is expected these days. The case raises the question of whether large-scale projects can still be implemented against the resistance of associations.
IW director Michael Hüther said that delays could be prevented, for example, with digitized procedures, restricted rights of action for associations and bonuses for administrative employees and construction companies. There is progress in planning law, but it also takes courage to implement it. "Employees in the administration usually do not benefit from an acceleration, but must face sanctions if, contrary to expectations, approval is not forthcoming and measures that have been started have to be dismantled." Premium systems in government agencies could create incentives for faster procedures.
But not only procedures have become more complex, many jobs have also been cut in administration, said Hüther. "Since it is now difficult to rebuild due to the shortage of skilled workers, municipalities should cooperate more and specialist authorities should involve private planning offices more frequently."
More incentives are also conceivable for companies to keep the construction time short. "In other countries, for example, there are bonuses for executing companies if projects are completed ahead of schedule," reports Hüther. The digitization of the process of planning, planning approval and construction could also save a lot of time, for example with a project folder in the cloud, to which everyone involved had access.
It is not the first time that environmentalists are delaying major projects by referring to rare animals and plants. For example, the small horseshoe bat in Dresden temporarily stopped the construction of the Waldschlösschen bridge over the Elbe valley. The Elbe deepening in Hamburg was hampered by the relocation of the rare swamp plant hemlock water fennel and for the construction of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel under the Baltic Sea newts and frogs had to find a new home. And construction of the Stuttgart 21 train station was delayed due to the rescue of the Juchten beetle.
In addition, there are long permits, unsuccessful planning and construction errors that cause the costs for large-scale projects such as BER Airport or the Elbphilharmonie to skyrocket - including years of delay.
According to the industry association BDI, the duration of proceedings in Germany has almost doubled over the past ten years. It takes an average of 18 months to approve a cell phone tower in Germany, and the value abroad is only four to six months. "It must stop that particular interests of the public can delay important investments, sometimes over ten or 20 years," said BDI President Dieter Kempf.
The Union now wants to limit the right of legal action for environmental associations. "Every new project is now complained of and questioned," said Carsten Linnemann, head of the CDU / CSU's Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. Only environmental associations should be allowed to sue if the interests of the association are affected or if there was no participation in the approval process. The Union already presented a paper with this proposal last autumn.
The chairman of the Green League Brandenburg, Heinz-Herwig Mascher, defends himself. Lawsuits of associations are covered by EU law. "We think very carefully about which processes we will go into," emphasized Mascher. "We want the process to be lawful." Mascher has already fought against other projects. "But we don't want to prevent Tesla," emphasizes Mascher.
Information on the project on the Grünheide side
Green league on the subject
Notice OVG Berlin-Brandenburg