They don't want to waste a second.
Representatives of the catering sector sent a document to the services of Prime Minister Jean Castex on April 2.
In this confidential text of which
La Voix du Nord
was the first, they propose to the government a timetable for resuming the activity of bars and restaurants in three stages.
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Representative organizations seized on a date displayed by the President of the Republic when the reconfinement was announced at the end of March.
Emmanuel Macron then promised that bars and restaurants could resume an activity on the terrace from mid-May.
According to the schedule proposed by the representatives of the sector, this phase of reopening the terraces alone would thus take place from May 15 to 28.
Secondly, from May 29 to June 11, activity could resume inside bars, brasseries and restaurants while respecting a reception level.
Finally, as of June 12, these establishments could fully resume their activity, and the gauge would be lifted.
A timetable to be negotiated with the government
"
With only open terraces, the break-even point is difficult to achieve for the majority of establishments
", argues Hervé Dijols, president of the National Union of Thematic and Commercial Catering (SNRTC), requested by
Le Figaro
.
It is to overcome this period of low profitability that the proposed timetable is ambitious: in a reopening plan proposed by the government in March, the different phases of takeovers lasted four weeks each.
Against only two weeks in that proposed by the profession.
In addition, the date of reopening of establishments will depend on the effectiveness of the new restrictions and the evolution of the curve of the epidemic.
For this reason, the government is careful not to set a recovery date in stone.
“
Restaurant owners are all ready to reopen their terrace.
I understand them, but I cannot make any commitments!
»Thus tempered Bruno Le Maire on April 4, on the set of the Grand Jury RTL-LCI-Le Figaro.
"
I'm going to disappoint you now, but I prefer that to selling illusions to the French,
" continued the Minister of the Economy.
Read also: Bars, restaurants, cultural places: reopening the country from mid-May, is this credible?
Despite these many uncertainties, representatives of the catering sector called on the government to anticipate, since they ask to know the date of reopening three weeks before the resumption in order to allow professionals to prepare for it.
The negotiations are therefore set to accelerate in the coming weeks.