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Berlin (dpa) - After Tesla's criticism of the approval process for its electric car plant near Berlin, a debate about investments in Germany is picking up speed.
On Friday, the Federation of German Industries also called for more speed in approval processes.
"Complex and lengthy procedures with multiple complaints and long expert battles have already become the rule for manageable projects," criticized the deputy BDI managing director Holger Lösch.
"That is a massive inhibition of investment activity in this country and deterring investors."
Among other things, the BDI demanded sufficient staffing and expertise in the authorities of the federal states as well as a “purification cure” for planning and environmental law.
“The challenges of German environmental law are unique in a European comparison, although all EU member states have the same requirements, said Lösch.
Among other things, Tesla had complained that 16 months after the application there was still no schedule for a final approval of the construction of its factory in Grünheide.
The “most glaring problem” is that in procedures and laws, projects that fight climate change and those that accelerate it are treated equally.
Tesla's plant helps fight global warming by spreading e-mobility, argues the US company.
In addition, possible local negative consequences for the environment have to be weighed against positive effects on a larger scale.
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The federal government went on a defensive course.
"I currently don't know of any other project for which so much has been done at all levels to ensure rapid implementation as for the Tesla project," said the Federal Government's SME Commissioner, Thomas Bareiß (CDU), the "Handelsblatt" (Friday ).
At the same time, he emphasized that the Tesla project shows an "ever greater conflict of interest" that is difficult to resolve between species protection, environmental protection and climate protection.
Politicians and the level of approval must increasingly weigh up and set priorities between “protecting the habitat of the bat or lizard and, on the other hand, adhering to our high climate protection goals”, said the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Bareiß admitted that “especially with medium-sized companies”, “approval processes are increasingly becoming an obstacle to investment”.
The approval times would have doubled within ten years.
But the “first important steps” have been taken with the new Investment Acceleration Act.
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Tesla's statement was also an indirect attack against the federal government: The car manufacturer expressed itself in a case between the German Environmental Aid (DUH) and the Federal Republic before the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg.
The DUH demands that the federal government be condemned to set up a program to achieve the national climate protection target of 2030.
Tesla submitted the statement as a "friend of the court" - as it was in the interest of the proceedings to share the experience.
Environmental aid boss Jürgen Resch called Tesla's letter "beneficial" because it gave momentum to the discussion on how to reduce excessive bureaucracy.
Tesla wants to start production in Grünheide in the summer according to information provided so far and over time will manufacture 500,000 cars per year.
So far, the US group has been building with provisional approvals.
The construction work had been interrupted several times, among other things after attempts to protect animals.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210409-99-139342 / 2