Because of Tesla factory: Union faction vice-president wants to change the right to sue associations

Tesla has not only made friends with the Gigafactory near Berlin. Above all, environmental associations are critical of the encroachment on nature for the construction. Associations from other federal states are also suing for this, and the Union now wants to take action against this method.

The state of Brandenburg has still not issued a final building permit for Tesla's Gigafactory. At the moment, the carmaker is pushing ahead with the construction of the factory via preliminary individual approvals. The reason for the pending approval is also the complaints of local residents and associations who criticize the clearing of forests and see the protection of animal species at risk. A Bavarian nature conservation association is also suing - but this is going too far for politicians. CDU man Carsten Linnemann tells the Handelsblatt

: "We must limit the right of associations to sue to environmental associations that are directly affected." For Linnemann, who is deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, this would mean the reverse: A Bavarian association may not sue against a construction project in Brandenburg.

So far, the right of associations to sue does not provide for any restrictions; in the case of the lawsuit from Bavaria, the Federal Environmental Agency had classified the association as entitled to sue. In February, the construction was already stopped once after a lawsuit by the environmental association Green League Brandenburg and the Association for Landscape Conservation and Species Protection in Bavaria, the Higher Administrative Court Frankfurt (Oder) allowed the clearing of the forest, however.

At the beginning of the year, 90 hectares had already been cleared for the Gigafactory being built near Berlin, and at the beginning of December the further clearing of 83 hectares of forest began. The Gigafactory near Berlin is expected to start building 500,000 cars a year as early as next year. It's not uncommon for companies to build by way of preliminary approvals, though Tesla is particularly quick to do so.