Swissterminal files complaint against Gateway Basel Nord

Swissterminal has filed a complaint with the Federal Administrative Court. The planning approval granted by the Federal Office of Transport (BAV) in September for the controversial Gateway Basel Nord project must be revoked. “The BAV is a party to the GBN project and certainly not neutral. It leaves all critical questions unexamined. Therefore, the Federal Administrative Court must decide now,” says Swissterminal President Roman Mayer. Firstly, the GBN project lacks legal foundations, and secondly, there is no necessity.

(Frenkendorf/Basel) The project of a massive terminal named Gateway Basel Nord aims to monopolize container handling in import-export traffic with Switzerland. Key drivers of the controversial project under the name “Gateway Basel Nord” (GBN) are the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and the Federal Office of Transport. On September 8, 2023, the BAV granted planning approval for the first phase of the project: the significant renovation and expansion of the bimodal terminal (rail/road) at the Rhine port in Basel-Kleinhüningen. In a second step, which has not yet been approved or financed, an additional harbor basin is to be created, and the capacities for trimodal handling (water/rail/road) are to be massively increased.

However, important prerequisites for the realization of the GBN plans are missing: On one hand, the central legal questions regarding the legality of the project and the associated state intervention in a market that is primarily supported by private companies and functions well remain unresolved. On the other hand, there is no necessity for such a GBN project. In fact, the demand forecasts for container handling that underlie the GBN project are completely outdated and far too high. Finally, the project is also not fixed to a specific location – especially not in the middle of Basel and in the midst of a nationally significant nature reserve.

Therefore, Swissterminal – a Swiss company that is mostly family-owned – is opposing the GBN project. On one hand, Swissterminal will lose its own location for container handling at the Rhine port Kleinhüningen with the realization of GBN starting in 2029. On the other hand, the company, which currently handles about a quarter of all containers in the Basel Rhine ports and is the nationwide market leader in container handling with additional locations in Switzerland and the bordering Alsace, is threatened in its existence by the GBN project. Today, Swissterminal employs around 150 people.

Revocation of the planning approval

With a complaint dated October 12, 2023, Swissterminal is now approaching the Federal Administrative Court and demanding the revocation of the planning approval granted to GBN by the BAV in September 2023. The essential questions are:

• Is it constitutionally permissible for the GBN project, with significant state involvement, to build infrastructures aimed at eliminating the market?

• Can GBN actually invoke “overriding national interests” to justify the elimination of a national protected object?

In its decision on the planning approval, the BAV refrains from the necessary in-depth clarification of these and related questions. Instead, the authority adopts the claims and arguments of the GBN supporters in key points almost unchallenged and unilaterally. For Swissterminal President Roman Mayer, this is not surprising: “The BAV has been a vehement supporter of the GBN project from day one. The BAV is a party and certainly not neutral. Therefore, the Federal Administrative Court must decide now.”

Critique of the various roles of the BAV

The complaint also criticizes the many different roles of the BAV in the ongoing process. It is a procedural construction error when (first) the same office significantly initiates and drives a project, (second) wants to take ownership of it for the federal government, (third) grants subsidies of up to a staggering 80%, (fourth) issues the approval, and (fifth) supervises the companies involved in the project and partly also directs them as a representative of the owners. These manifold roles of the BAV in the GBN project also explain why the BAV presents and weighs the arguments in the contested planning approval decision unilaterally. Swissterminal asks the Federal Administrative Court to take this into account when assessing the complaint.

Photo: © Swissterminal / Caption: Terminal and headquarters of Swissterminal in Frenkendorf near Basel, Switzerland