The A20 coastal motorway cannot be built in Lower Saxony for the time being.
On Thursday, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig declared the plan approval decision for a first section between Westerstede and Jaderberg to be "illegal and unenforceable" (case no.: BVerwG 9 A 1.21).
The environmental association BUND thus achieved a partial success in court.
The association had sued against the construction of the Autobahn.
Another lawsuit filed by a farmer was dismissed.
The 9th Senate of the Federal Administrative Court specifically criticized the nitrogen calculation for the Garnholt fauna-flora-habitat area (FFH area).
Here the planners made a mistake, a threshold could be exceeded.
"The nitrogen calculation on which the planning was based was very precise from the start," said the presiding judge.
"An impairment of the FFH area cannot be ruled out with the required degree of certainty."
One of the most important infrastructure projects
The existing coastal motorway is to be extended from Stettin in Poland via Bad Segeberg in Schleswig-Holstein to Lower Saxony.
Tunnels under the Elbe and Weser are planned.
With 121 kilometers alone on the Lower Saxony side, the controversial A20 is one of the most important infrastructure projects in the state.
Lower Saxony's BUND state chairwoman Susanne Gerstner was on the one hand pleased with the decision.
The planning errors were obvious.
However, she criticized the fact that the court "did not take into account in any way" central issues such as climate protection and needs.
"It's a slap in the face for the younger generation.
The A20 is one of the most climate-damaging projects in the federal transport route plan.” Gerstner announced further resistance to the coastal motorway.
The Greens in Lower Saxony also welcomed the court decision.
Julia Willie Hamburg, parliamentary group leader, demanded: "The traffic light coalition in Berlin must now use the construction freeze to quickly review the outdated federal transport route plan as the previous basis for many nonsensical motorway projects."
The climate protection movement Fridays for Future explained to the address of Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP): "Now it's time to redo the entire traffic route plan".
Vigil of the action alliance "moor stays moor"
The Federal Administrative Court emphasized that it had extensively examined whether the current climate protection law had to be taken into account.
However, the plan approval decision was made in 2018 - and at that time the law was not yet in force.
The situation is different with the ongoing plans for further sections: "The Climate Protection Act will apply to further sections of the A20," said the presiding judge.
Before the verdict was announced, the action group “Moor Stays Moor” organized a vigil in front of the courthouse.
The opponents of the motorway construction are also calling for an action weekend (July 15th to 17th) in the A20 protest camp near Westerstede in Ammerland.