On March 8, 2020, the coalition committee of the federal government also made decisions that are of interest to landscape architects.

What is new is that, under the heading of accelerating planning, the regional planning procedure and the planning approval procedure are to be better interlinked and, where possible, merged.

The reintroduction of legally binding material preclusion for the rail, road and waterway sectors is to be examined in the light of a decision by the ECJ expected in the autumn. In addition, standardisation and implementation guidelines on species protection requirements are to help facilitate the examination of species protection in the context of approval procedures.

In the area of financial planning 2021-2024, both investments in transport routes and urban construction funds are to be increased. The additional money is to go towards the brownfield reactivation programme to enable more affordable housing to be built. The funding programme for the refurbishment and modernisation of sports facilities will be continued.

Last but not least, the coalition committee says: "We want to examine changes in the regulations on environmental impact assessment. To the extent permitted by EU law, modification projects below certain thresholds could in future require neither an EIA nor a preliminary EIA assessment."

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