03 September 2025

No more ‘David versus Goliath’ in association appeal rights

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With parliamentary initiative 19.409, National Councillor Philipp Matthias Bregy sought to restrict the right of associations to appeal against small construction projects. Following approval by the National Council in 2024, the amendment came into force on 1 August 2025.

  • Corina Noventa

    Senior Legal Associate

On 14 March 2019, National Councillor Philipp Matthias Bregy submitted parliamentary initiative 19.409 ‘No more David versus Goliath in association appeal rights’. With this initiative, he proposed an amendment to the Nature and Cultural Heritage Protection Act of 1 July 1966 (NHG). Specifically, the right of appeal for associations under Article 12 NHG should be restricted for smaller individual projects within the building zone.

Currently, environmental organisations are entitled under the Environmental Protection Act and the Nature and Cultural Heritage Protection Act to lodge appeals against certain projects on the grounds of violations of federal environmental law. In this way, they can have a project reviewed by the courts to determine whether it is compatible with applicable law.

However, in the opinion of the Federal Council, it is disproportionate for environmental organisations to be able to assert a right of appeal in certain cases involving smaller residential buildings. Citizens who wish to construct such a residential building in a building zone should, in principle, no longer have to expect complaints from environmental organisations. The right of appeal in this area is therefore to be restricted to cases where such residential buildings are planned in particularly sensitive areas, such as protected village centres or designated biotopes.

In September 2024, the National Council approved the proposed amendment to the NHG. This stipulates that environmental organisations are no longer entitled to lodge appeals against smaller construction projects within the building zone.

The new provision in Art. 12 para. 1bis NHG now specifies that organisations no longer have the right to appeal against decisions on residential buildings with a floor area of less than 400 m² within building zones. However, the right to appeal remains

a) within sites of national importance or if the projects directly affect historical sites or cultural monuments or if they are to be realised in their immediate vicinity, or

b) within biotopes of national, regional or local importance.

The amendments came into force on 1 August 2025.

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