Federal Administrative Court Rejects Lawsuits Regarding Elbe Fairway Adjustment

The DSLV Federal Association of Freight Forwarding and Logistics has welcomed the decision of the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) today to reject the last lawsuits against the adjustment of the Elbe fairway with great relief. The DSLV assumes that the organized attempts at blockade have finally come to an end.

(Berlin) “The Port of Hamburg is indispensable for the functioning of the entire foreign trade-oriented economy of Northern and Eastern Europe, and thus for hundreds of thousands of jobs. We are relieved that the Port of Hamburg can continue to fulfill this function in the future,” said Willem van der Schalk, spokesperson for the Committee of German Seaport Forwarders in the DSLV (KDS).

Regardless of today’s decision by the BVerwG, the years-long discussion about the adjustment of the fairway has clearly revealed that the bureaucratic hurdles that must be overcome for infrastructure projects in Germany have now taken on dimensions that threaten locations and thus jobs. “It is evident that an acceleration of the approval processes for transport infrastructure projects is absolutely necessary. Important infrastructure projects must no longer be subjected to an organized, partly ideological blockade policy,” the KDS spokesperson continued.

As a leading and federal association, the DSLV represents the cross-modal interests of 3,000 leading German freight forwarding and logistics companies through 16 regional state associations, which, with a total of 605,000 employees and an annual industry turnover of over 110 billion euros, are a significant part of Germany’s third-largest industry. The membership structure of the DSLV ranges from globally operating logistics corporations, 4PL and 3PL providers to larger, owner-managed forwarding companies (SMEs) with their own truck fleets, as well as charterers of inland vessels and railways, to sea, air freight, customs, and warehousing specialists. The DSLV serves as a political mouthpiece and central contact for the federal government, for the institutions of the Bundestag and Bundesrat, as well as for all relevant federal ministries and authorities in the legislative and implementation processes, as far as logistics and freight transport are concerned.

Photo: © Loginfo24

https://www.dslv.org/  –   www.hafen-hamburg.de

www.bverwg.de  Federal Administrative Court / BVerwG 7 A 1.18 – Judgment of June 4, 2020