On 17 December 2025, the German Federal Cabinet approved the draft Infrastructure Future Act (Infrastruktur-Zukunftsgesetz) prepared by the German Federal Ministry of Transport (BMV). The Act is scheduled to come into force in mid-2026 and must first pass through the parliamentary process. The aim of the act is to make planning and approval procedures for infrastructure projects – particularly in the transport and energy sectors – more efficient, digital and faster. Against the backdrop of a transport infrastructure in Germany that is outdated and in need of renovation, the act is intended to advance urgently needed expansion and modernisation projects.
The draft act provides for amendments to a total of 18 existing laws and one regulation, including specialist laws on procedural and planning law, transport infrastructure law (in particular for rail, road, water and air) and environmental law.
Key contents of the draft act
Prioritisation of key infrastructure projects
Key transport projects involving rail, road and waterways are to be classified by law as projects of overriding public interest and serving public safety. This classification is intended to ensure that such projects are given sufficient weighting over other aspects of public interest – in particular environmental protection and nature conservation – and can therefore be implemented more quickly. All transport infrastructure measures financed from the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (Sondervermögen Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität) are also to be included in this prioritisation.
Priority protection should also be granted to projects that are of particular military relevance and serve national or alliance defence.
Environmental protection and nature conservation
On the one hand, the act is intended to simplify the environmental impact assessment (EIA) process: some individual railway infrastructure projects are to be assessed more quickly in future, in some cases without a full EIA. In clearly defined exceptional cases, such as urgent transport infrastructure or defence infrastructure projects, it should also be possible to shorten the time required for environmental impact assessments or replace them with alternative assessment formats.
On the other hand, for prioritised central transport projects and projects of particular military relevance, the possibility should be opened up to fulfil nature conservation compensation measures on an equal footing by means of a compensation payment. This would remove the obligation on the project developer to restore the functions of the natural environment primarily through real compensation (compensation and replacement measures).
The planned Nature Area Requirement Act (Naturflächenbedarfsgesetz) should also be considered in this context. This act is intended to enable the search area for large-scale compensation measures to be extended beyond the nature area currently defined by law and to recognise measures that serve to implement the European regulation on nature restoration as compensation and/or replacement measures. In addition, uniform standards for species protection assessments for road and waterway projects are to be established nationwide to avoid differing assessments at state level, to achieve harmonisation and thereby make procedures more predictable. The corresponding draft law is to be presented by 28 February 2026.
The Infrastructure Future Act also aims to bring specialist legislation into line with the provisions of the Environmental Appeals Act (Umwelt-Rechtsbehelfsgesetz). Details of the amendment to the Environmental Appeals Act initiated by the Federal Government.
Reducing bureaucracy and digitalisation
In addition, regulations that were previously scattered across various specialist laws will be bundled together in the Administrative Procedure Act (Verwaltungsverfahrensgesetz) in order to standardise the application of the law. At the same time, duplicate planning steps will be eliminated – in particular by streamlining regional planning procedures and route determination in the transport sector. This will eliminate upstream reviews that previously had to be conducted in parallel, such as those concerning the spatial compatibility of a project or the determination of the route alignment.
In future, the entire planning approval process for infrastructure projects is to be carried out digitally. A corresponding amendment to the Administrative Procedure Act is intended to make the digital implementation of the procedural steps the new standard.
Electronic communication, digital announcements and central data platforms are to largely replace paper-based procedures. In addition, digital planning tools – such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) – are allowed for further efficiency gains.
Connection with the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality
The draft Infrastructure Future Act focuses on the legal and organisational requirements for speeding up planning and approval procedures. At the same time, the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality (Sondervermögen Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität) will provide additional investment funds of up to €500 billion over twelve years, in particular for transport, energy and digital infrastructure, as well as climate protection.
Both instruments are legally independent of each other but are closely related in terms of content: while the Special Fund provides the financial basis for numerous infrastructure projects, the Infrastructure Future Act is intended to ensure that these projects can be planned and approved more efficiently.
Criticism of the draft law
Criticism of the draft law has been expressed in particular by the Federal Council of Germany (Bundesrat) in its statement of 30 January 2026. Although it is fundamentally in favour of the goal of acceleration and simplification, it considers the draft to be insufficiently effective, as it does not address a large part of the measures already agreed upon in the federal-state process for state modernisation. It lacks punch and does not significantly speed up procedures. Criticism is also levelled at the insufficient financial backing, in particular the lack of a cross-transport infrastructure fund. The omission of the energy industry, which was originally planned to be included, is also criticised.
The proposed amendments to the Federal Nature Conservation Act (Bundesnaturschutzgesetz), in particular those relating to the equal treatment of compensation measures and compensation payments, have been criticised not only by the Bundesrat, but also by environmental associations and individual transport associations.
Conclusion and outlook
With the Infrastructure Future Act, the Federal Government is providing impetus for reform to modernise planning and approval law. By bundling and streamlining procedures, prioritising key infrastructure projects and reducing bureaucratic hurdles, the aim is to overcome long-standing delays in the implementation of transport projects. In conjunction with the investment funds from the Special Fund for Infrastructure and Climate Neutrality, this creates an approach that specifically combines legal acceleration and financial resources.
At the same time, the draft bill highlights the existing conflicts of interest between accelerated infrastructure development and nature conservation and environmental protection. In particular, the new regulations on the equal status of real compensation and compensation payments have been met with criticism from environmental associations and raise questions about the long-term balance between infrastructure needs and ecological protection interests.
The draft bill creates new opportunities to save time but also harbours uncertainties regarding the prioritisation and legal certainty of approvals. The parliamentary process remains to be observed, as the final form is still a draft, particularly after the clearly critical opinion of the Bundesrat, and significant improvements appear possible. This process – including the deliberations on the Natural Areas Requirement Act – will be decisive in determining whether the acceleration goals of the Infrastructure Future Act can be combined with nationally uniform, legally secure and acceptable environmental standards.
