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60 Lawsuits Against Cost Sharing In The Crown Return Campaign
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The great common vaccination has started in the EU
There are no signs of a Christmas break: vaccines against the corona virus have started across Europe. Each member state decides for itself which groups of people should be immunized first.
After many countries closed borders and cut air connections on short notice due to the corona pandemic, the federal government launched an unprecedented return campaign. However, only a quarter of the passengers paid the shared costs. And some want to sue.
AA few months after the unprecedented return drive due to the corona pandemic, the federal government only collected a good quarter of the estimated cost share from air passengers. Some even want to take payment notices to court. According to a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to a request from FDP deputy Roman Müller-Böhm, which has been received by the German Press Agency, there are now 60 complaints.
According to the ministry, recovered tourists or business travelers paid 10.6 million euros to the state treasury before December 16. This corresponds to 11 percent of the total campaign cost of € 93.8 million calculated in June. At the time, however, the Foreign Ministry assumed that travelers brought in from around the world would contribute nearly 40 percent.
Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD) launched the campaign on March 17, together with tour operators and airlines, after many countries temporarily closed borders and cut air connections due to the pandemic of the crown. A total of around 240,000 travelers were returned. Tour operators airlifted tourists who had booked with them for free.
The Federal Foreign Ministry chartered planes for individual tourists and others wishing to return, which made 260 flights and brought back around 67,000 people from around 65 countries at the end of April. They were then asked to pay starting in June. The estimated ticket prices were roughly in the range of the cheapest budget tickets for the respective regions. Flights from the Canary Islands and North Africa had to pay EUR 200, southern Africa and the Caribbean had to pay EUR 500, returnees from South America and Asia had to pay EUR 600, and those who were brought from New Zealand and Australia received an invoice for 1000 Euro.
According to the Secretary of State in the response of the Foreign Ministry, Miguel Berger, by mid-December 28,728 payment notices had been sent. How many of these were paid for is unclear from the letter.
The cost sharing of passengers is stipulated in consular law. In addition to them, the EU also contributes to the cost of flights. According to the AA’s original calculations, German taxpayers should still have a balance of 23 million euros or 24 percent in stock.
