Germany's new law speeds up infrastructure but sparks environmental backlash
"Germany has all it takes to become a leading maritime nation in the 21st century," he declared on Wednesday at the National Maritime Conference in Emden. He noted that this ambition was shared at the federal and state levels, as well as by businesses and employees alike.
For an industrial and trading powerhouse like Germany, "maritime security is the very foundation of a thriving economy," Merz emphasized, pointing to the situation in the Strait of Hormuz. At the same time, he cautioned that security and competitiveness were two sides of the same coin.
The biggest challenge, he argued, was not a lack of funding but excessively long procedural and approval timelines. Merz therefore urged swift passage of the so-called Infrastructure Acceleration Act by the Bundestag. The bill, he noted, had already been approved by the federal cabinet months earlier. Its purpose, the chancellor explained, was "to streamline procedures and ensure that the expansion of roads, rail lines, and waterways is treated as a matter of overriding public interest, taking precedence over other considerations."
He called on colleagues "in both parliamentary groups to pass this law quickly and decisively in the Bundestag."
The Infrastructure Acceleration Act has faced criticism for eliminating immediate environmental compensation for infrastructure projects and significantly curtailing the legal rights of environmental organizations. In response, the coalition has proposed a counterbalance: a Natural Land Requirement Act. However, according to reports, the Chancellery has raised objections to this plan.
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