Overpass on the Ems-Jade Canal. Expensive fun in the future?
The underlying law was already passed by the last Bundestag. The Federal Fees Act of August 7, 2013 provides that "the fee creditor can levy fees and expenses of public administration activities from the fee debtor for individually attributable public services". For users of the federal waterways, this means in plain language that freedom of movement will be more expensive in the future.
It is still unclear how the federal government intends to get around 65 million euros with which it quantifies the costs for leisure shipping per annum. Because explicitly the collection of the much-discussed toll is not yet imminent. In future, however, the users of locks and lifts will be cashed in.
Recreational shipping has been paying for decades
Now it is not something that sailors and motorboat drivers have not paid anything to use it. Because so far there was an agreement between the Federal Ministry of Transport and the associations that they pay a flat rate per season, with which the use of locks and lifts was compensated for all water sports enthusiasts (including those who are not members of the association).
So that will change now. The DSV says:
"With the introduction of the individual fees, by 2018 at the latest, the flat-rate compensation for lock and elevator fees, which the two top water sports associations, the German Sailing Association (DSV) and the German Motor Yacht Association (DMYV) have been paying to the federal government every year since the 1970s, will no longer apply If the annual flat rate is abolished, it should, however, be increased again - for the remaining years up to 2018 and until the introduction of the individually levied road fee.
The background to their introduction in the 1970s was the proposal of the German Sailing Association at the time to relieve recreational boaters from collecting lock and lift fees individually and to prevent accidents that had previously occurred in the lock chambers because the skippers gave their obolus to the lock staff and to do this, the ladders, some of which were wet, had to climb up and down."
DSV demands compliance with the coalition agreement
Referring to the various Bundestag resolutions to promote water sports and tourism in the Federal Republic and the water tourism concept called for in the coalition agreement, the DSV now wants to approach the federal government, according to Sven Herlyn, member of the presidium responsible for mass sports, in order to develop a future model that takes all interests into account.