The Fehmarn link will bring Hamburg and Copenhagen closer together.
But the new opportunities will not necessarily translate into growth on Lolland-Falster and in South Zealand, even though the area lies in the middle of the route.
If the region is to gain more from the Fehmarn link than through traffic, active efforts will be needed, says Thomas Becker, Managing Director of STRING, which brings together cities and regions along the corridor from Hamburg to Oslo.
He sees a clear parallel between the future Fehmarn tunnel and the tunnel between England and France.
- If you look at Dover and Calais, neither of the two has flourished dramatically. They have simply become transport areas. Analyses have looked at how to avoid that situation, and the conclusion is that when you build a connection on this scale, mixed economies such as Denmark and Germany also need to allocate funding to promote growth around it, he says.
Calls for a Marshall Plan
Hamburg’s Senator for Economic Affairs has pointed out that the faster connection could lead northern Germans to choose Copenhagen Airport. Becker shares that expectation, but sees it as just one example of how the shorter distance could change opportunities along the entire corridor.
Lolland-Falster and South Zealand will gain easier access to the large market to the south, and according to Becker, targeted efforts will be needed if businesses and local communities are to benefit from their new position.
Otherwise, the risk is that the region becomes an area where growth simply passes by.
- We have proposed a kind of Marshall Plan for Lolland-Falster and Schleswig-Holstein – in other words, a comprehensive development plan for how we can best capitalise on the opportunities created by the new connection. There has to be a plan for what these areas are to be used for, he says.
In his view, responsibility lies with the governments of the two countries. He believes Denmark and Germany should have worked far more systematically together to create growth around the connection.
- Neither the Danish nor the German state has been alert enough. The areas both north and south of Fehmarn already have problems with growth, and the connection should be an opportunity to address that. But the work is simply moving far too slowly, he says.
Although he acknowledges that many different projects are under way or being planned along the future Fehmarn corridor, there is no overall strategy. For Thomas Becker, it is crucial that the value of the tunnel is also felt in the regions it connects.
- It is the responsibility of a serious business minister to ensure that the connection bears fruit, so the major cities do not capture all the growth. The ambition should be greater than simply ensuring that the connection itself breaks even financially. If it does not create growth, what are we building it for?
