An agreement between the conservative CDU party and the left-leaning SPD, who hope to form a ruling coalition following Germany’s recent election, proposes creating a major new infrastructure fund and overhauling borrowing rules.

They are set to take those proposals to the German parliament next week.

Economists and investors have been calling for Germany to reform its state borrowing limits, known as the “debt brake�, to allow more investment to flow and stimulate the economy.

German construction industry association Bauindustrie welcomed the proposals as “groundbreaking� and “essential�.

Bauindustrie’s general manager Tim-Oliver Müller said, “The fact is dilapidated bridges, roads, railways and waterways as well as pipeline infrastructure in need of expansion endanger the competitiveness of the German economy. We’ve been pointing this out for years. As a reminder: The Rahmede Viaduct [pictured above] was closed three years ago, the Carola Bridge [in Dresden] collapsed in 2024, and until yesterday hardly anything worth mentioning had happened from politicians.

“With the change in the geopolitical situation, military mobility is now coming more into focus and increasing the relevance of investments in infrastructure. The critical state of Germany’s civil infrastructure no longer only represents a significant burden economically, but unfortunately also in terms of security policy.�

Felix Pakleppa, the chief executive of the Zentralverband Deutsches Baugewerbe (ZDB), which represents around 35,000 construction companies in Germany, also welcomed the proposals as a historic opportunity but warned that money alone would not be sufficient.

He said that the planned investments are “urgently needed� to revitalise the German economy and restore the country’s competitiveness.

But he added that improvements to the planning system needed to accompany increased spending. He said. “Money alone is not enough. The processes have to become faster, the bottleneck is the planning and administrative system. Especially in infrastructure projects, planning and approvals take considerably longer than the construction itself. Authorities and planning offices must be expanded in terms of staff. This is the only way we can build the planned investments.�