Brandenburg BER investigation committee to clarify delays and costs

Around one and a half years after the opening of the BER airport, a committee of inquiry has begun in the Brandenburg state parliament at the request of the AfD regarding the rise in costs and the late start.

The committee of inquiry is to clarify all processes of the five billion euros more expensive completion of the BER and the considerable delay, said the chairwoman, deputy AfD faction leader Birgit Bessin, on Friday before the start of the constituent meeting in Potsdam. She announced 167 questions to be dealt with. Bessin said she wanted to fulfill her task "to the best of her knowledge and belief."

The state parliament had appointed the second investigative committee in this legislative period in February. The AfD was able to push through the committee with 22 members of its faction.

The other factions consider the committee, which has eleven members, superfluous and expensive. The SPD estimates the costs at just under one million euros. The first committee of inquiry - also at the request of the AfD - has the Corona crisis as its subject.

The new committee is to analyze, for example, how the costs for the airport could grow by almost five to more than seven billion euros, whether the wrong course was already set when the decision was made on the location and how the construction defects came about. It is also about violations of the ban on night flights and the noise protection for residents, which the AfD considers inadequate.

The state parliament had already accompanied the construction of the BER with a special committee, in the Berlin House of Representatives there were two investigation committees on the airport.

The capital city airport has had a difficult start so far. Last year, the airport company FBB made a loss of almost 570 million euros. Flight operations can only continue with the help of the owners - the federal government and the states of Berlin and Brandenburg.

Photo by Neil Martin