Germany: Pool & Spa Associations React with Incomprehension. New Covid-19 Resolutions a Matter of Interpretation?
Branchenverbände appellieren weiterhin massiv für eine Öffnungserlaubnis für Bäderbetriebe.
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The latest resolutions passed on Wednesday (3rd March) by the German federal and state governments on how to deal with the current Covid-19 situation in Germany do still not include any concrete opening perspective for public pools, spas or sauna facilities. The European Waterpark Association (EWA), together with other industry associations, continues to campaign massively for public pools to be allowed to resume operations as soon as possible.
With regard to the rough, step-by-step opening plan for various explicitly named operations, businesses and facilities, the EWA now sees itself forced to interpret the unspecific resolutions: “[…] We see only little margin of interpretation here, which we want to clarify with legal support, if necessary.“ If pools are counted among the group of businesses where “contactless indoor sports“ take place, then they would be allowed to reopen on 22nd March at the earliest, provided that the incidence value in the federal state or in the region remained stable below 50 for at least 14 days, explains the EWA the current situation.
If an assignment of pools and spas to this opening level is not accepted, a decision on a possible reopening of this kind of facilities will probably not be made until the next conference of the Minister Presidents with the Chancellor on 22nd March.
As a result of their persistent work, the bath associations were able to achieve a success in the matter of financial aids: “After a call from the Ministry of Economics
following our joint appeal by the associations made us optimistic about the consideration of financial aids in the ‘interim aid package III‘ for municipal pool operations, but which was deleted from the draft resolution the next day, it was now possible, not least thanks to the commitment of the Association of Municipal Enterprises, to achieve a regulation that gives the municipal pool operations a perspective again,“ informs the EWA. (eap)
