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Alliance president Mark Adam Harold says there are already precedents in Europe where bar and nightclub owners and their representatives sue in court over similar bans.
“We are already talking to lawyers. There are also cases in the UK, today I was in a meeting with representatives from different countries and they said they considered it wrong to declare bars as dangerous places,” MA Harold told BNS.
“This practice is considered a mistake in the West. I thought that we would not make the same mistake in Lithuania. And today I get the message that Lithuania has done the same. And she relied on Western practice, ”said the head of the Vilnius Night Alliance.
Both he and Saulius Galdikas, director of BrandFood, manager of the Vilnius Piano Man bar, said that the government’s decision was extremely unexpected, as these decisions were said to be the responsibility of the municipality.
“It just came to our attention then. In recent weeks it has been intensively communicated that it is the responsibility of the municipality to solve these problems,” S. Galdikas told BNS.
Just a few days ago, the municipality and the Vilnius Night Alliance presented a map of #SafeVilnius, on which the safest entertainment venues were marked.
“There really are rays from the clear sky … We have created exemplary security programs in Vilnius. This program was allowed to run for three days and then it says nothing will happen. It is really very irresponsible, I am surprised,” said Harold .
Galdik said bars and nightclubs had already agreed to additional security measures at entertainment venues.
“NVSC, which is an organization under the wing of the Government, also participated there. The whole process continued. Now we are sitting and thinking for ourselves what this can mean for us, because we were definitely not prepared for that,” said the director. by Piano Man ֧.
For discos, the death penalty
According to MA Harold, bars and nightclubs offered additional security solutions a couple of months ago, when the situation in Lithuania was not as bad as it is now.
According to him, it was these institutions that proposed registering people to track sick visitors who had contact with the sick.
“Everything could have been done a couple of months ago and we offered all kinds of tools. We have asked for more control, and now they are blaming the bar industry for spreading the virus? Harold asked.
“We have been in consultations with the Ministry of Health twice and they did not support the registration obligation. They were not interested in proposals for more protection measures, they just said they would look at the situation and did nothing,” he said.
According to him, allowing work only until midnight for nightclubs, which receive the highest flow of visitors after 24 hours, is in fact a “death sentence.”
“For nightclubs, it is a death sentence. The bars were already on the brink too. Now you will receive even less income. Worse, not to mention the economic aspect, it is wrong to throw all the people out in the same minute” Harold MA said.
S. Galdikas said that due to the quarantine and subsequent additional restrictions, the bar is still balancing on the brink of loss.
“Now we are working, balancing on the brink of loss, now it will be just a clear loss. We do not know how much everyone will want to keep that loss here,” said the director of Piano Man.
According to him, limiting the activities of the bars until midnight will reduce the workload, which will translate into a reduction in staff and downtime.
“There is a reduction in the workload, which means that fewer people will have to work, we will work physically less, which means a decrease in turnover, a decrease in orders, wages and probably staff,” said S. Galdikas.
Both interlocutors said there was no evidence that the bars were exceptionally unsafe.
“Bars are the easiest to ban, they have taken it and banned, although there are no statistics or data that there is anything wrong here,” Galdik said.
Previous – Berlin
As the coronavirus continues to spread rapidly in Europe, countries are placing increasingly severe restrictions on public life with some already returning to quarantine.
These restrictions are particularly painful not only for tourism and accommodation providers, but also for bars, clubs and cafes, whose activities have already been reduced this spring.
Authorities in the German capital Berlin had also decided to limit the bars to 11 p.m., but the restaurant’s owners went to court and won the case. The court ruled that such restrictions were disproportionate and that evidence was lacking that bars that required the use of masks and maintained a safe distance between tables contributed to the growing number of infections.
Restrictions on the opening hours of bars, clubs and restaurants have also been lifted in Baden-Württemberg, Saxony, Lower Saxony and the Saarland.
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