Sunday June 20th 2021
Coalition wants extension
Entry restrictions should remain
The epidemic situation of national scope expires at the end of September – and with it the regulations on corona entry restrictions. This is what the Infection Protection Act provides. The coalition now wants to change this so that the specified entry conditions can continue to apply.
Even after the end of the corona epidemic in Germany, nationwide entry restrictions should in principle be able to be maintained. As the “Welt am Sonntag” reported, citing coalition circles, the Union and the SPD are planning a corresponding change to the Infection Protection Act in the Bundestag before the summer break.
“We want to decide next week that entry conditions, which were set by Health Minister Jens Spahn by regulation, can continue to apply, even if the epidemic situation of national scope no longer exists,” said the legal policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Johannes Fechner. Transport bans from virus variant areas and test and quarantine obligations upon entry could be affected.
So far, the law provides for such regulations to expire with the so-called epidemic situation that is limited to the end of September and has national implications. With the proposed changes to the Infection Protection Act, entry restrictions could continue to apply for up to twelve months. “The desire of many federal states for nationwide uniform entry rules and for protection from global variant areas has only been fulfilled for a few weeks and is to be continued,” said CDU health politician Rudolf Henke of the newspaper.
The SPD legal expert Fechner considers an extension of the statutory authorization to be justified. “Since these are very small-scale administrative measures, a formal law is not required,” he said. He does not see a risk of abuse, since the entry regulations do not involve significant interference with fundamental rights.
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