The new state government coalition in Schleswig-Holstein, which includes the Danish minority SSW party, is to axe some DKK440million in investments on the German side of what is to be a link across the Fehmarn belt between Denmark and Germany.

At the same time, the SDP, Green, SSW coalition says it plans to keep to the Danish-German agreement on a Fehmarn link, the upcoming SSW Culture, Europe and Justice Minister Anke Spoorendonk tells nordschleswiger.dk.

Spoorendonk says that the former centre-right government in Schleswig-Holstein had planned on spending some DKK400million on infrastructure investment for the link, but that the federal government should be paying the costs, as the link is in the national interest.

“If the budget for the link is much higher than expected, we should investigate the option of new negotiations between our two countries. But we are sticking to our undertaking not to change the Danish-German treaty,” says Spoorendonk.

Asked if removing the funding is not just a new and refined way of preventing or delaying the project – particularly due to Green opposition, Spoorendonk tells nordschleswiger.dk: “Well, it isn’t an SSW trick”.

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