This article was the Topic of the Week for Week 2 in the 2025 newsletter.

Whether it’s bridge renovations, broadband expansion, or industrial settlement: In Germany, progress is increasingly coming to a standstill — especially when it comes to speed. Truckloads of file folders, a flood of expert opinions, or years of legal proceedings are just some of the reasons why vital investments in the expansion, modernisation, or development of infrastructure, buildings, or facilities remain stuck. A few flagship projects like LNG terminals or major international settlements only seem to indicate a shift towards a new German speed. Most investment projects, especially those by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), still progress only sluggishly.

For this reason, accelerating planning and approval procedures has rightly been at the top of the agenda, even for the current coalition government. Numerous acceleration laws have been enacted: broadband expansion, geothermal energy, onshore and offshore wind energy, LNG, hydrogen, heat pumps, and transport infrastructure. In a "Pact for Planning, Approval, and Implementation Acceleration," the federal and state governments also agreed on over 150 individual measures. These were intended to mark the beginning of an era of German speed.

Small-scale instead of big strides

Unfortunately, the government has become mired in minor adjustments with the various acceleration laws. Significant legal simplifications have only been implemented for certain approval procedures or specific types of projects. For example, deadlines, shortened processes, or optional discussion hearings have been implemented for wind turbines or hydrogen electrolysers, but not for industrial facilities. For motorway projects, the overriding public interest has only been legally established for a few congestion-relief projects. This designation allows exceptions — for example, in nature conservation — to be decided more quickly. However, thousands of pressing bypasses, gap closures, or motorway expansions remain stuck. Although numerous procedural facilitations have been initiated for the hydrogen ramp-up, the procedural rules for the hydrogen core network and access routes, or the water provision for electrolysers, remain unchanged.

The DIHK Acceleration Monitor shows that the most important resolutions of the acceleration pact by the federal and state governments have only been implemented in 8 out of 49 areas. In most cases, these changes have been limited to specific types of projects, such as wind energy, hydrogen, geothermal energy, or rail. Most sector-specific laws for relevant approval procedures remain untouched. Thus, the promised German speed is, for now, only happening in small incremental steps.

Now it’s time to pick up the pace

The new federal government must therefore put the legislative process into high gear. Instead of continuing to facilitate individual types of procedures on a piecemeal basis, it should implement major acceleration measures for all relevant approval procedures and economic projects without exception after the election. The proposals have been on the table for years; the federal and state governments have already agreed on many of them unanimously. Instead of amending individual sectoral laws for certain measures bit by bit, changes should uniformly simplify all projects and procedures across sector boundaries at a fundamental level. This way, a new federal government, together with the states, can present real German speed in planning and approvals.