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WIESBADEN, Germany – Officials from the German Federal Ministries of Defense and Construction met with leaders from IMCOM-E, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and the Army Corps of Engineers at Installation Management Command-Europe headquarters in Wiesbaden to discuss construction issues and concerns across Germany.
In welcoming his guests, Tommy Mize, IMCOM-Europe Director, reflected on the issues this group has resolved over the past several years “We’ve come a long way over the last few years and I know collectively, we’ll continue to do that,” he said, before the leader of the delegation from the Ministry of Construction expressed his appreciation for the meetings.
“I’m glad we are here and that we can continue from our last meeting in Ramstein, and the meeting we had in Berlin. We have some interesting tasks and things to decide today. It’s always a good opportunity, and I’m looking forward to the meeting,” said Lothar Fehn Krestas.
The group opened with the most significant topic on the agenda: the signing of an agreement to raise the threshold for U.S. direct construction to 6 million euro.
Direct construction describes projects the US military may execute with its own personnel and labor, or by directly awarding contracts to contractors, in agreement with German authorities, according to Adrian Ruehl, senior general construction engineer with IMCOM-Europe.
Until just a few years ago, the threshold allowing the U.S. military to execute direct construction in Germany was 375,000 euro, raised in a 2022 agreement to 1.2 million euro, and now is settled at 6 million euro.
“Under the bilateral agreement governing construction in Germany, the host nation has given us approval for if and how we execute our projects,” Ruehl said. “This helps both sides with stream the workload and opens up possibilities for shortening time to complete projects”.
Other topics on the agenda included future coordination with the host nation environmental compensation measures and the status and contracting mechanisms for energy projects in the future.
The group plans to meet next in June.
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