The underlying law has already been passed by the last Bundestag. The Federal Fees Act of 7 August 2013 provides that "the fee creditor may levy fees and expenses of administrative activities under public law 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 become more expensive in future.
It is still unclear how the federal government intends to obtain the approximately 65 million euros it estimates the annual costs for leisure shipping to be. This is because the much-discussed toll is not yet being levied. However, users of locks and lifts will be charged in future.
Recreational shipping has been paying for decades
It is not the case that sailors and motor boaters have not paid anything for their use up to now. This is because there was previously an agreement between the Federal Ministry of Transport and the associations that they would pay a flat rate per season to cover the use of locks and boat lifts for all water sports enthusiasts (including those without associations).
This will now change. The DSV says:
"With the introduction of individual fees, the flat-rate compensation for lock and lift fees, which has been paid to the federal government every year since the 1970s by the two leading water sports associations, the German Sailing Association (DSV) and the German Motor Yacht Association (DMYV), will be abolished by 2018 at the latest. However, before the annual lump sum is abolished, it is to be increased once again - for the remaining years until 2018 and until the introduction of the individually levied travelling fee.
The background to its introduction in the 1970s was a proposal by the German Sailing Association at the time to relieve pleasure boaters of the burden of collecting lock and lift fees individually and to prevent accidents that had previously occurred in the lock chambers because the skippers had to hand in their fee to the lock staff and climb up and down the sometimes wet ladders to do so."
DSV demands compliance with the coalition agreement
Referring to the various Bundestag resolutions on the promotion of water sports and tourism in Germany and the water tourism concept called for in the coalition agreement, the DSV now wants to approach the federal government in order to develop a future model that takes all interests into account, according to Sven Herlyn, member of the executive committee responsible for popular sports.
Lasse Johannsen
Deputy Editor in Chief YACHT
