Berlin  - A proposed law, aimed at streamlining environmental legislation in Germany, has failed, Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said Sunday.

"Germany will still have no straightforward, transparent and unbureaucratic environmental law in one piece," Gabriel said.

The environment minister, of the centre-left SPD party, was critical of the internal political wranglings inherent to the process by which individual state approval is sought for proposals to pass.

Bavaria, led by the conservative CSU sister party of Chancellor Merkel's CDU, ultimately didn't approve the law, criticising it for adding another layer of bureaucracy for companies seeking environmental certification.

The project failed "due to a hollow lack of reform and blind blocking policies of the union," Gabriel said. dpa