Munich (dpa/lby) - In the debate about the repayment of unjustifiably imposed corona fines, the Ministry of Health wants to give the municipalities specific instructions for implementation. "At the request of those affected, fines should be repaid in individual cases after appropriate examination by the competent authority if the behavior punished with the fine should not have been prohibited according to administrative court decisions," said a spokesman for the ministry at the request of the German Press Agency in Munich .
Furthermore: "We only consider a refund to be appropriate in these cases. Which cases this specifically affects can only be finally assessed when the written reasons for the judgment of the Federal Administrative Court are available." Concrete instructions for implementation for the municipalities are currently being developed and "then sent to the responsible authorities". He did not give an exact date.
A few weeks ago, the Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig surprisingly ruled that the strict exit restrictions imposed by the Free State in April 2020 were disproportionate and ineffective. As a result, the court announced that the reasons for the judgment could probably not be served until 2023. However, more than 22,000 fines were imposed in Bavaria from April 1 to 19, 2020.
In the meantime, some municipalities had spoken out against a refund, and the central municipal associations were demanding uniform specifications from the state government.
The Ministry of Health assumes that the question of reimbursement will probably only affect a small part of the fines. At the time, these were enforced by the municipalities on the basis of the state government’s Corona Ordinance. If local authorities now have to reimburse fines, the Ministry does not see any additional financial burden for the local authorities. The Corona fines are revenue “that basically flow into the state budget and have been returned to the municipalities via financial allocations”.
