Administrative court processes for large infrastructure projects are usually lengthy and complex - but some people enjoy them.

First and foremost the responsible rapporteur of the Ninth Senate at the Federal Administrative Court, who allowed himself to be carried away to this euphoric assessment at the beginning of a now legendary trial: the trial for the Fehmarnbelt crossing.

A wealth of "exciting questions" of a legal and factual nature will be discussed over the next few days of the hearing, he enthused at the time and assured: "The process is great fun."

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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That was in September 2020, the corona pandemic had just returned from its first summer break, which is why the 160 people involved in the proceedings and a number of media representatives did not meet in the stylish Leipzig courthouse, but in the congress hall at the Leipzig Zoo.

This venue did justice to the dimension of the proceedings, as it was as extensive as the legal dispute itself. The judges finally cleared the hurdles for the construction of one of the largest infrastructure projects in Europe, but today the legal dispute over the Fehmarnbelt crossing is left at the Federal Administrative Court fall, you get the information that the cause is far from over.

Three lawsuits are still pending.

Now it cannot be assumed that the federal government, especially Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann (FDP), would like to take the fun out of the administrative judges in such proceedings, but they could then fail faster.

It took 13 years from the start of planning to the first groundbreaking on the German side – time that the Danish side had long since spent building.

Conservation can slow things down

It's not just about building tunnels, but also promoting the energy and transport transition.

This requires wind turbines, power and gas lines, terminals for the liquid gas LNG and railway tracks on a scale that far exceeds everything that has gone before.

Ten years for a wind turbine – Germany doesn't have that much time anymore.

So far, there has often been a problem due to bureaucracy, lengthy legal proceedings and the strict requirements of species protection: the fate of red kites and endangered toad species can mess up any careful planning and delay it for several years.

The federal government is now pushing the pace in terms of planning acceleration. Buschmann submitted a first draft law to the other departments on Wednesday, which is intended to shorten the procedures before the administrative courts.

It is a first step on the long road to speed up planning, which several ministries and the Federal Chancellery are working on at the same time.

Previous federal governments have tried to speed things up, but so far this has borne little fruit.

In the future, Buschmann wants to give the courts guidelines on how to deal with "particularly important infrastructure projects", as stated in the draft bill available to the FAZ.

It goes without saying that this primarily includes wind turbines and projects for the expansion of renewable energies. But construction measures for the expansion and renewal of the "transport infrastructure" should also go faster in the future.

This also includes railroad tracks and road construction.

The aim is to further reduce the duration of the procedure for these projects "with a high economic or infrastructural importance" - without impairing the effectiveness of legal protection, the explanatory statement promises.

Important projects immediately in higher instances

To this end, Buschmann is planning a bundle of different measures.

In the future, the higher administrative courts, administrative courts and the Federal Administrative Court will be responsible for central projects in the first instance.

The Federal Administrative Court should be the first instance, especially for the urgently needed LNG terminals and for projects under the Energy Security Act.

The Leipzig judges are not only familiar with this from the Fehmarnbelt proceedings: ten lawsuits regarding the expansion and new construction of extra-high voltage lines are currently pending before the highest German administrative court.

This is intended to save the time of a multi-stage appeal;

on average, the proceedings at the Federal Administrative Court last around a year.

In addition, according to the current plans, there will soon be a "priority and acceleration requirement";

Legal proceedings relating to the infrastructure projects mentioned must therefore be processed before all other proceedings.

How this affects the distribution of business in the responsible courts will probably be shown in practice.

It could help that the Minister of Justice would like to have more specialized senates in the courts in the future, as has long been the case in other areas of law.

In addition, Buschmann wants to oblige the judges to an early hearing, in which the possibilities of an amicable settlement of the legal dispute are also to be explored.

The parties involved should meet for the first time no later than two months after receipt of the statement of defense.

Buschmann also ordered the courts to be more pragmatic in summary proceedings.

More often than before, contradictions should not lead to planning and construction being put on hold until the matter has been decided.

He wants to limit the suspensive effect of contradictions.

In the future, judges should also be able to overlook errors in the procedure more generously: courts can ignore deficiencies in administrative decisions "if it is obvious that they will be remedied in the foreseeable future," says the draft law.

In future, procedures should no longer be held up by reasons that ultimately make no difference anyway.