The state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia is currently debating a draft bill from the state government that contains various amendments to the state's monument protection law. The aim of the amendment is to speed up procedures and facilitate projects with security or infrastructure-related aspects. The draft is of considerable importance for the practice of monument protection law and expertise, especially as it is also likely to trigger corresponding discussions in other federal states. The key points of the draft are

• Special law for state and federal properties - new Section 38a of the German Monument Protection Act (DSchG): Until now, state and federal monuments have also been subject to the general authorisation requirements under monument law. In future, a new Section 38a DSchG will introduce a new notification procedure for certain state and federal properties. In particular, projects for the purposes of national or alliance defence, the federal police, civil defence or disaster control, accident relief or defence against extraordinary events will be covered. The utilisation of existing monuments for these purposes should be in the overriding public interest. Authorisation under monument law should no longer be required for changes to the monument if the higher monument authority does not object within one month.
• No more authorisation requirement for certain infrastructure projects: Under current law, changes to monuments or measures in their immediate surroundings are generally subject to authorisation under monument law. § Section 9 DSchG NRW is now to be amended so that „changes to infrastructure projects that do not require planning approval“ no longer require authorisation under monument law. However, it is not clear what is covered by the rather broad term „infrastructure projects“.
• Reduced involvement of the specialised authorities in the case of ground monuments: Up to now, decisions on matters relating to the protection and preservation of archaeological monuments have been made „in consultation“ with the relevant specialised authority. In future, the general participation rules of Section 23 DSchG NRW are to apply to archaeological monuments, i.e. only a „hearing“ of the director of the Landschaftsverband; at the same time, the deadline for commenting is to be shortened to one month. As a hearing is only of an informative nature, the change from „consultation“ to „hearing“ weakens the role of the specialised authority in this area.

As the parliamentary process is still ongoing, it remains to be seen what changes will be made to the draft bill. „In terms of the aim of accelerating infrastructure projects, the draft bill is to be welcomed,“ says Rechtsanwalt Tobias Roß. However, in addition to a genuine balance of interests between monument preservation and acceleration, it is now particularly important to remedy the remaining technical weaknesses of the draft: for example, it should be defined more precisely which „infrastructure projects“ should be exempted from the authorisation requirements under monument law,