Clifford Chance

Acceleration of court proceedings in the infrastructure sector

August 31, 2022

On 18 August 2022, the German Federal Government presented a draft law which aims to considerably reduce the duration of administrative court proceedings for major infrastructure projects. The new proposal should help to speed up the decision practice so that operators and investors receive certainty about their projects within a shorter timeline. This newsletter provides an outline of the legislative proposals and some of their implications.

ENERGY SHORTAGE AND THE ENERGY TRANSITION

In the light of the existing energy shortages and the ongoing energy transition, the Federal Government has broadly acknowledged the importance of new major infrastructure projects in Germany. As an example, the Federal Government is currently pushing for the expansion of gas pipelines and particularly LNG terminals which shall make Germany less dependent on foreign pipeline imports. The same applies to the expansion of the transmission grid as the ongoing energy transition requires a rapid expansion of renewable energies such as wind and solar.

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