Is the Dirndl Safe from Prying Eyes in the EU?

As recently as this past Thursday, things were looking down for the dirndl. Busybodies at the EU Parliament in Brussels were rubbing their hands with glee after, it appeared, ruling that the immodest maidens who show their strength and more while carrying eight or so liters of the world's best lager would have to cover up, lest the EU's "Optical Radiation Directive" be violated. In normalspeak, they feared that German beer maidens, accustomed to the stares of customers but unused to the harsh glare of the sun, would find their finest an uncomfortably bright pink. My post from that day included a photo to illustrate the dirndl, lest the uninitiated assume a connection between the ungainly look and sound of this German word and the objects that, in practice, it seeks to expose.

But in today's Sunday Telegraph, in the letters to the editor section (keep scrolling down), one Sarah Lambert of the European Commission writes that all will be well. While she shows signs of possessing the earnest-to-the-death, bureaucratic personality we've come to expect from anyone associated with the EU Parliament, she at least displays the ability to alliterate:

Sir - Bavarian barmaids will not be forced by the EU to ditch their dirndls in favour of less revealing attire (News, Aug 3).

New proposals soon to be voted on by ministers and MEPs (including those from the United Kingdom) will require employers to assess the risk of skin cancer for outdoor workers, a pressing concern given that there are 69,000 new cases diagnosed each year in the UK alone.

What will be required of bosses if there is deemed to be a risk will be up to national authorities to decide and, in the case of bar managers, their own common sense.

Furthermore, Deutsche-Welle reported last week that the refusal of fans of the dirndl to sit on their hands saved the day for the regional tradition:

The EU representative in Bavaria, Paul-Joachim Kubosch, however, assured the beer garden fans that there was no need for the neckline scare, since the European directive on optical radiation would only concern high-risk professions, which does not include beer garden servers.

So it seems that the dirndl is safe, after all, and, along with it, the Bavarian sense of friendliness and cheerful openness to the world.

Let the sunshine in, and let the lager flow.