Overview

• In a July 25 letter to Federal Minister Katherina Reiche, Bavaria’s Economy Minister Hubert Aiwanger called for a three-year nationwide moratorium on environmental association lawsuits for energy and other infrastructure projects.
• The proposal builds on Union-SPD coalition plans to reduce Verbandsklagerecht to the EU minimum but represents a deeper temporary suspension of legal challenges.
• Aiwanger is also seeking amendments to the Aarhus Convention to curb international lawsuits by environmental NGOs.
• Greenpeace warned that halting association lawsuit rights would violate national and international law and weaken public participation in environmental decisions.
• At the Suedlink power-line groundbreaking in Oerlenbach on July 25, residents’ protests underscored local resistance to underground renewable energy lines.