National building regulations for municipalities:

In addition to ‘technical issues’: quality of life and climate and biodiversity protection as new challenges in focus

An essential part of the government’s strategy ‘Méi a méi seier bauen’ is to draw up a national ‘règlement des bâtisses’ that will be binding for all municipalities.

The Ministry of the Interior is taking the lead on this new regulation, but other sectoral ministries are closely involved in its drafting, as is apparently the case at the municipal level.

Until now, there have been no such binding national guidelines for all municipalities. However, the Ministry of the Interior provided municipalities with a template for municipal building regulations (règlement-type sur les bâtisses) that they could adopt and adapt.

This ‘decentralised’ solution has led to considerable differences in the local regulations of the various municipalities, with all the associated advantages and disadvantages.

This has had a noticeable impact on planning security, approval times and investment costs, as well as a lack of transparency and traceability of rules. Why – to take just one much-cited example – the distance between a solar panel and a neighbouring building varies from municipality to municipality is incomprehensible and cannot be justified on technical grounds.

In addition, different municipalities have addressed future challenges in different ways. While some have integrated guidelines against light pollution or measures for better use of water resources in public spaces, others have done so to a lesser extent or not at all.

However, it does not make sense for each municipality to have to establish its own basic standards that are not related to the specific characteristics of the municipality and its urban design.

In urban planning issues or the general design of a locality, it will continue to be important to give municipalities the necessary autonomy, but this is less appropriate for minimum standards for buildings.

In this respect, the Mouvement Ecologique welcomes the creation of such national building regulations. We consider this to be a simplification of work for municipalities, a sensible harmonisation and a contribution to the transparency of technical standards. Well-thought-out national regulations can lead to substantial improvements and simplifications.

However, in the opinion of the Mouvement Ecologique, it is essential that not only technical adjustments and harmonisation take place, but that today’s challenges – keywords: urgency in climate and biodiversity protection, climate adaptation, transport transition, rational use of resources – are also taken into account.

With this statement, Mouvement Ecologique would like to illustrate, for each topic area, which adjustments are necessary from an ecological point of view and which additional parameters should be included.

30.07.2025