It was completely by the book – and the law – that the state of Schleswig-Holstein gave Femern A/S a dispensation to excavate in an area where protected rock reefs had been found. The federal administrative court in Leipzig ruled this on Wednesday afternoon.
Two complaints
In September 2021, Femern A/S was granted a dispensation to let the FBC consortium begin the excavation of the tunnel trench in an area where there were two protected rock reefs. This led Aktionsbündnis gegen eine Feste Fehmarnbeltquerung (Actions Association against a fixed Fehmarnbeltquerung, ed.) and NABU (Naturschutzbund Deutschland) to file a complaint to the German Federal Administrative Court.
42 hectares
Roughly speaking, the complaints are about whether Femern A/S compensates enough for the affected reefs. It has been agreed that Femern A/S will establish a total of 42 hectares of new rock reefs. This is 17 hectares more than originally agreed, because previously unknown reefs appeared during the mapping work. The two German nature and environmental organizations believed that this was not sufficient. And it is their complaint that the court has now rejected.
The compensations are sufficient
Femern A/S notes the verdict with satisfaction:
We are happy that the cases have been dismissed. The Federal Administrative Court has now confirmed that our compensations for the reefs off Fehmarn are sufficient. Approximately 9.2 hectares of reef will be permanently or temporarily lost and 17.5 hectares will be created as a result of the construction work. So to compensate, we will create more new reefs on the Sagasbank than are lost due to the tunnel work off Femern, says Stefanie Knörck, head of permits and environment at Femern A/S, on the developer’s website.
NABU disappointed by the verdict
They are not quite so excited at NABU, who call the verdict a disappointment:
The verdict is a big disappointment. The Baltic Sea is doing badly ecologically, and Germany has demolished all European objectives. It is more important than anything else that such serious interventions as tunnel construction are effectively compensated. With today’s verdict, it has come to nothing. Basically, the construction of reefs is the right compensation measure, but the neat calculation where only a quarter of the area to be compensated must be restored is fatal and must not set a precedent, says NABU president Jörg-Andreas Krüger in a press release.
Scandlines entered into a settlement
The ferry company Scandlines had also announced legal proceedings against a further change to the planning approval decision. In that case, the parties reached a settlement, and the legal dispute was settled outside the courtroom.
