Bonn, 5 October 2020. The German Bundestag's Committee on Transport and Digital Infrastructure has invited Dr. Frank Fellenberg, an expert in planning law and experienced trial lawyer, to a public hearing scheduled for 5 October 2020. In the session, the committee is to address a government draft bill for the Investment Acceleration Act (Investitionsbeschleunigungsgesetz). The law is intended to fast‑track the provision of financial resources for important infrastructural projects.
The government's draft bill provides for a significant expansion in the jurisdiction of first‑instance higher administrative courts. This will reduce the court instances involved, for example, in approvals for national roads, port projects and wind energy plants. Furthermore, approvals for certain infrastructural projects are to be immediately executable by law. The development and maintenance of railway infrastructure is also to be expedited. Electrification of railway lines, digitalisation, noise abatement and the construction of barrier‑free train stations are to be encouraged. Moreover, regional planning procedures will only be required if project developers submit applications for such or if regional planning authorities expect conflicts of significance for regional planning. Furthermore, the regional planning procedure is to be digitalised to a greater extent.
Dr Frank Fellenberg, LL.M. (Cambridge), specialist in administrative law and partner in the law firm Redeker Sellner Dahs, advises public institutions and project developers throughout Germany on numerous key infrastructural and transport projects. He has already been appointed as an expert on parliamentary committees on several occasions. His practice focuses on European and German environmental and planning law, public commercial law and energy law.
