The  Public Affairs experts of Nörr Stiefenhofer Lutz advised the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs (BMVBS) on the implementation of the European Territorial Agenda. A team led by the Berlin partner  Dr. Holger Schmitz chaired a discussion process between politics and business, the result of which, the "Charter Economy and Spare: a call to territorial dialogue" is presented to the public today in Leipzig. 30 national and foreign businesses, including Air Berlin, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Evonik, IBM, Karstadt, Kaufhof, Microsoft and Siemens participated.

The idea of the Charter arose from the recognition that politics alone cannot overcome the challenges of further economic development in the regions of Europe. An intensive dialogue with the business sector is therefore intended in the future to ensure early recognition of necessary legal innovations or amendments to the legal framework to be made by politicians. "The Charter is a symbol for a paradigm change in politics, offering to co-design urban planning development with business", said Schmitz. "We are proud to have brought business and politics closer to one another and to have contributed to the development of an institutional structure for this purpose".

Projects already named in the Charter include statutory amendments to enable energy efficient buildings to be erected more economically, the simplification of the approval process for renewable energy plants and the conclusion of regional energy-saving agreements.

Nörr previously advised the BMVBS on the drafting of the Charter for a network of 'Vital Cities' which concerned the revitalisation of European inner cities by encouraging the location of retail businesses in inner cities (cf. Press Release 5 May 2006).