Juliane Albrecht, Karin Thinius

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 21 (2023), Issue 1, Page 2 - 23

Soil sealing in Germany is progressing steadily. As a result, important soil functions such as water permeability and soil fertility are being lost. These soil functions can be (partially) restored by unsealing. To support the implementation of existing unsealing potentials, the Federal Environment Agency has funded a research project. The analysis of the legal requirements for unsealing carried out in the project has shown that the topic affects various regulatory areas and instruments of environmental and planning law, but that the relevant regulations and instruments are only applied to a limited extent in practice. This article presents the most important results including suggestions for the further development of the legal framework.

Juliane Albrecht

Zeitschrift für Europäisches Umwelt- und Planungsrecht, Volume 13 (2015), Issue 2, Page 96 - 119

The content of the Water Framework Directive (2000/60/EC, WFD) is considerably influenced by its ecosystem approach, stipulating the achievement of a good water status in Europe until 2015. The legal transposition of the ecological requirements into the Federal Water Act has yielded a noticeable greening of German water law. This is not only the result of introducing the environmental objectives and instruments for their achievement into the German legal framework, but also due to their interlinking with the existing legal procedures for water use permissions. However, the interpretation of the European regulations as well as their integration in the system of German water law give rise to a variety of legal questions. They are not only discussed in academia, but gained practical relevance and became subject to court proceedings recently. The paper explains those issues with a special focus on the case of the planned deepening of the river Weser. It is currently pending at the European Court of Justice following a request for preliminary ruling by the German Federal Administrative Court.