Tacit Approval as a Game Changer for Faster Infrastructure Roll-Out
Tacit Approval as a Game Changer
The Challenge:
Whether under the “Germany Pact,” the “Permit Pact,” or “Germany Speed” – there has long been cross-party consensus that infrastructure roll-out must accelerate significantly. A central lever: the introduction of tacit approval – meaning that applications are deemed approved if deadlines expire without a decision.
The catch: implementation requires changes to construction laws, falling under the competence of 16 German federal states. In construction, major legal changes traditionally take years.
Our Approach:
- Expert analysis of which legislative changes would truly speed up roll-out
- Development of a legally sound narrative linking tacit approval to principles of building law and administrative modernization
- Political analysis of federal responsibilities and decision-making logics in construction regulations
- Building cross-industry and cross-party understanding of tacit approval as essential for nationwide 5G and 4G mobile network roll-out
- Support in content and communication design – e.g. embedding into state-level so-called mobile pacts
- Long-term campaign leadership over several years to shift administrative practice, political positions, and legal frameworks step by step
Our Success:
Through consistent, targeted public affairs work, tacit approval was anchored as a key mechanism for speeding up infrastructure approvals – not only at federal level, but increasingly in state legislation and practice.
Today it is part of several state-level mobile packages and serves as a blueprint for other infrastructure projects.
The case demonstrates: in a federal system, only strategically guided, long-term campaigns can deliver structural reforms in construction and planning law – turning good intentions into real-world implementation.
The consulting services depicted took place in the context of the team’s previous professional activity and were not performed by zōonpolitikon.
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