The Fehmarn Belt Tunnel: Permits, Court Battles, and Cross-Border Negotiations—How a Major European Project Was Legally Secured

The interactive discussion series „Let’s Talk About Recht“ is taking place at the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. The focus is on one of the most complex and challenging proceedings in recent German history.

Leipzig. One tunnel, two countries, numerous interests and high legal hurdles: The planned Fehmarnbelt tunnel is intended to connect Germany and Denmark and fundamentally change the traffic between the two countries by road and rail. As one of the longest immersed tunnels in the world, the European infrastructure project presents engineers and architects with major challenges. It also required extensive testing and weighing of the legal aspects.

On Wednesday, November 11, 2026, at 07:00 p.m. „Let’s Talk About Recht“ goes on tour: The talk series is making its first appearance as a guest at Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig. There, the lawsuits against the construction of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel were also decided. The guest speaker will be Martin Steinkühler, judge at the Federal Administrative Court and rapporteur in the proceedings.

Before construction of the Fehmarnbelt tunnel could begin, legal hurdles arose: First, in a complex and time-consuming administrative procedure, the planning had to be legally determined and objections raised decided upon. An equally complex one-and-a-half-year legal procedure before the Federal Administrative Court followed against the planning approval decision, with which the project was initially approved.

How can one overcome the enormous practical and legal hurdles of such an infrastructure project? How did the Federal Administrative Court proceed when weighing the affected interests? What challenges arise from the different approval procedures of two countries?

This and other questions are addressed in the interactive discussion series. In conversation with the moderator Susann Böttcher Martin Steinkühler provides insights into the legal challenges of the proceedings and shows how the court dealt with the various interests and complex legal issues. As always, the audience is invited to participate, to ask their own questions and to actively contribute to the discussion.

Martin Steinkühler is a lawyer and judge at the Federal Administrative Court. From 2014 to 2025, he was assigned to the 9th Revision Chamber, which is responsible, among other things, for proceedings in the area of road and road traffic law. Today, he is deputy chairman of the 7th Revision Chamber.

The conversation will take place at 7:00 p.m. in the Federal Administrative Court, Simsonplatz 1, 04107 Leipzig, place. Admission is free. Registration is not required.

Let's Talk About Recht
Since 2025, the Forum Recht Foundation has been regularly hosting the „Let’s Talk About Recht“ discussion series at its venues in Karlsruhe and Leipzig. The guests are prominent figures from various fields of law who discuss their day-to-day work and share their perspectives on current legal topics—ranging from labor law and tenancy law to freedom of speech. The discussions are recorded and subsequently released as a live-on-tape podcast.