Germany’s Bundestag opens debate on a bill to speed up Bundeswehr construction, amending ten laws

Germany’s federal government has put a bill before the Bundestag that would change planning and approval rules so that barracks, depots, training areas and transport links for the armed forces can be built faster. The Bundestag held the first reading of the Bundeswehr Infrastructure Acceleration Act on 15 October, according to the German Ministry of Defence.

The ministry says the existing planning and approval framework was written for civilian infrastructure and does not adequately reflect the urgency of defence projects, at a time when the security situation in Europe, Germany’s NATO commitments and the planned growth of the Bundeswehr all require more building. Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Environment Minister Carsten Schneider drafted the bill together.

What the bill would change

The ministry lists several core elements. A new Bundeswehr Construction Act (Bundeswehrbaugesetz) would be introduced, and ten existing laws would be amended alongside it, among them the Federal Immission Control Act, the Environmental Impact Assessment Act, the Code of Administrative Court Procedure, the Soldiers Act, the Land Procurement Act, the Protection Zones Act, the Water Resources Act, the Federal Forest Act and the Federal Nature Conservation Act.

According to the ministry, the main measures are:

• Certain military projects would carry greater weight in approval and balancing procedures as being of overriding public interest, with a single body handling the balancing.
• Deadlines would be shortened and procedures simplified to cut bureaucracy.
• Environmental and nature-protection rules would be eased where this is compatible with EU law, mainly until 2033, with limited exceptions agreed with the environment ministry to keep sites functional.
• Accelerated procedures would apply to national and alliance defence, including infrastructure for troop movements and the reception of allied forces, along with easier land acquisition and the designation of military protection zones.
• In especially urgent cases, mainly crisis or war, the Bundeswehr could build itself or with third parties, using its own administrative bodies or in-house companies together with the federal states. At present the states carry out federal construction on the federal government’s behalf.
• The Federal Administrative Court would hear certain lawsuits in the first instance, including those under the Protection Zones Act, the Land Procurement Act and the Aviation Act, and over pipeline-based supply projects.

Parliamentary path

Sebastian Hartmann, a parliamentary state secretary at the Defence Ministry, spoke for the government at the first reading and described the bill as a further step towards a strong Bundeswehr capable of defending the country. Pistorius said the government was creating the conditions for faster building and was taking on ten laws in total. The bill now goes to committee deliberation, followed by second and third readings and a final plenary vote.

The measure sits alongside other defence legislation now before parliament, including the plan to expand the reserve, covered in Geopolitiki’s report on the Bundestag debate on the reserve law.