The designation of the exceptional public interest for specific projects provides government agencies with a prioritization during considerations or discretionary decisions. This approach significantly facilitates and accelerates many approval processes, particularly concerning exemptions under nature conservation law or for monument protection.

Many laws set deadlines for the approval authorities to decide on applications. In practice, these deadlines are rarely met. One reason for this is the lack of legal consequences for missing a deadline. Typically, this results in no implications. In some sectors, the legislator has therefore introduced the concept of "approval by limitation." Approval is automatically considered granted if the authority fails to decline the application within a set deadline. In certain construction codes of federal states (e.g., Berlin, Bavaria) and most recently the Federal Road Act (FStrG), approval by limitation has been introduced for specific decisions. Some laws—such as § 10 BImSchG or § 127 TKG—also include assumed consent provisions from involved authorities or public interest bodies.

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Many planning and approval procedures take so long that conditions on site or the relevant laws change after the application has been submitted. It is therefore not uncommon for plans, inspections, or documents to have to be rewritten or redone, delaying infrastructure projects by years. DIHK advocates for a cut-off date regulation. The relevant time point of the issue and legal circumstance should be the date of completion declaration. The BImSchG (§ 10 Abs. 5) contains such a regulation, but only for wind energy systems.

Many specialized planning laws stipulate deadlines for application submission, public participation, or decisions by authorities. In the LNG Acceleration Act, these deadlines were significantly reduced to expedite LNG terminal approvals. In the Federal Highways Act (FStrG), a four-year deadline was established for route approval within the trans-European transport network. The majority of the procedures thus remain without deadlines. Furthermore, no legal consequences for exceeding deadlines were introduced.

Many areas of approval law provide simplified procedures, for example, waiving public participation, environmental impact assessment, or hearings. Projects with negligible impacts are wholly exempt from approval requirements by law. Recently, exemptions from approval have been extended for replacement construction of motorway bridges. Many industrial plants in the Federal Republic could adopt the simplified approval procedure. In construction law, the federal states could – in addition to the resolved exemption of roof conversions – release further construction projects from procedural requirements.

Several specialist laws provide for the possibility of early commencement of construction measures under the Federal Environmental Protection Act (Section 8a), the Federal Water Act (Section 17), the Environmental Impact Assessment Act (Section 69a), and the Federal Trunk Roads Act (Section 17 para. 2). This allows projects to be implemented while the approval process is still ongoing. Approval is linked to stringent hurdles (prognostic decision, public/legitimate interest, restoration of original condition). The so-called prognostic decision in particular, where the authority must check whether subsequent approval can be anticipated, is described as costly and time-consuming.

Due to numerous vague legal terms and regulations in species conservation, the enforcement authorities of the federal states implement nature conservation law very differently. Investment projects are repeatedly delayed by lengthy court proceedings concerning legally unresolved issues. To accelerate the expansion of wind energy, the BNatSchG has therefore established a nationwide uniform assessment framework for certain breeding birds. In the acceleration pact, the federal government and states agree to extend this accordingly to railways, energy, roads, and industrial facilities.

The planning, approval, and procedural law often include mandatory or optional consultation appointments, which can be enforced by authorities. Specific legal areas generally make divergent regulations. Many companies report frequently unnecessary appointments that consume substantial effort and time. In the law to accelerate fuel-switching processes, the appointment duration was shortened. In the LNG Acceleration Law, the appointment was completely abolished.

Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) are thorough and complex processes involved in planning or permitting procedures. Public participation often requires significant time. For many cases, this requirement may appear disproportionate. Legal exemptions have already been defined for LNG terminals, railway modernization, and bridge replacement projects.

In many planning approval and permitting procedures, lawsuits or objections lead to a halt in proceedings. Due to lengthy court proceedings, this can push back investment projects for years. For LNG terminals, this preliminary judicial protection has therefore been restricted. It is also anchored in the BImSchG for wind energy and electrolysers.