When new bridges or roads are built, planning and approval processes can drag on for years. The coalition in Saxony-Anhalt wants to work to ensure that this goes faster in the future.
Magdeburg (dpa/sa) - The black-red-yellow coalition in Saxony-Anhalt is pushing for approval procedures for infrastructure projects to be accelerated. A corresponding motion is to be discussed in the state parliament this week. "We have so much in front of our chests that actually needs to change, where we have to speed up construction projects," said SPD parliamentary group leader Katja Pähle of the German Press Agency.
The coalition's application states that the planning simplifications envisaged by the federal government must be extended beyond the issue of energy supply. Otherwise the catching-up process in the modernization of the infrastructure will not succeed. Among other things, the expansion of modern information and communication infrastructure, the rehabilitation and new construction of railway lines, bridges, roads and industrial areas are listed. "Fiber optic expansion, 5G expansion, bridges, roads, railway lines now need a noticeable acceleration in planning and approval."
In addition, the extent to which legal objections to such procedures can be limited should be discussed. It is currently possible to raise an objection at the end of a planning process, said Pähle. There was once a federal regulation that stipulated that one had to express oneself in the first phases of a project. However, this was overturned by the European Union. "We would like an attempt to be made at the federal level to get a European legal regulation back on the spot, so that one is protected to a certain extent from last-minute lawsuits."
