It must prevent organizers from prematurely stopping their activities for fear that they will have to pay themselves. That is what outgoing State Secretary Keijzer (Economic Affairs) wrote to the House of Representatives on Wednesday. These are one-day events without overnight stays. Earlier this week, the cabinet already canceled multi-day festivals, such as Lowlands and Down the Rabbit Hole.
Decision
On August 13, outgoing Minister De Jonge (Public Health) and Prime Minister Rutte made a decision about further corona measures. This also seals the fate of other events until the beginning of September. For many organizers, this uncertainty lasts too long, Keijzer acknowledges. In order to remove the ‘undesirable incentive not to incur further costs’, the subsidy scheme for events from 14 August to 3 September will therefore be expanded, according to the State Secretary.
So if the cabinet decides to ban those events on 13 August, the organizers will be reimbursed for their costs.
No new event
To prevent fraud, it only concerns events that were already planned before 9 July. Organizers who have decided after 9 July to organize an event in the period up to and including 3 September, will therefore be responsible for the costs incurred.
Exactly which events can claim the so-called Additional Allowance for Events (ATE) has yet to be determined. The cabinet will come up with an elaboration of this later. The expansion will increase the costs of the ATE from EUR 80 million to EUR 120 million.
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