EU could reopen borders to tourists in Covid-19 recovery plan – The Guardian

European countries will be advised to open borders to countries with similar coronavirus risk profiles under a plan to bolster the ailing tourist industry being discussed in Brussels.

On Wednesday the European commission will recommend a phased approach to reopening borders that means EU countries with similar overall risk profiles on the pandemic will open to tourists from each others countries, according to a leaked draft paper seen by the Guardian.

Restrictions on travel should first be lifted in areas with a comparable epidemiological situation and where sufficient capabilities are in place in terms of hospitals, testing, surveillance and contact tracing capacities, the paper said. The draft was first reported by the website Euractiv.

The EU executive has previously voiced unease about tourism corridors, whereby member states make bilateral deals to open to each others tourists, but now appears ready to accept such arrangements in practice.

The EU includes some of the countries worst hit by the pandemic notably Spain and Italy along with others such as Greece and the Czech Republic that have so far limited its impact.

Officials are scrambling to rescue Europes tourism industry, which accounts for 10% of EU economic output more in Italy, Spain, Croatia and Greece.

Austrias chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, announced last week that he intended to open the borders to visitors from safe countries, such as Germany and the Czech Republic, as part of efforts to protect the Alpine states tourism industry.

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia will reopen their borders to each other from 15 May, creating a Baltic travel bubble.

We showed a good example by stating, very clearly, that only countries which successfully dealt with the situation can open themselves up, Lithuanias prime minister, Saulius Skvernelis, has said.

Greece, among nine countries that have notched up low infection rates so far - and have formed the Smart Covid-19 management group has proposed that tourism ministers also meet to discuss the idea of travel corridors among the alliance.

With around one million people almost a quarter of its workforce employed in the industry, Greece is keen to capitalise on its unexpectedly successful handling of the pandemic.

In proposals made ahead of the talks, Athens has suggested that travellers be tested for Covid-19 three days before departure. Given that testing people upon arrival at airports will be difficult, the idea of socalled PCR tests being conducted to determine a persons status, say 72 hours before travelling, has been discussed, one insider told the Guardian.

Greece hopes the sector can be rebooted by 15 June with the nation opening to foreign tourists by 1 July.

The countrys tourism minister, Harry Theoharis, confirmed on Tuesday that if progress was not made on Wednesday Athens would pursue measures that would allow air travel by striking bilateral agreements with other countries. Germany, Austria, Israel and Cyprus have already begun discussing travel corridors with Greece, along with Bulgaria and other Balkan states to its north.

Senior EU officials acknowledge they cannot stop governments from striking such bilateral or trilateral deals, but argue against selective treatment. If Austria opens to Germany, it would be expected to permit entry to all residents in Germany.

The commissions acceptance of national border controls contrasts with earlier unease. Member states cannot open borders for citizens from one EU country, but not from others. This is essential, the EU home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told MEPs last week.

Separately, Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron have agreed to work on appropriate border measures. A UK government spokesperson neither confirmed nor denied a report by the Sun that the two leaders were planning a travel corridor aimed at allowing British tourists to visit France in the summer and vice versa. The spokesperson referred to Foreign Office advice against all non-essential travel worldwide.

The British government has exempted travellers from France from having to go into a 14-day quarantine that will apply to most international visitors.

A European commission spokesperson welcomed all arrangements that bring us back to normality but called on the British government to apply the same rules to other EU countries where the virus is under a similar level of control as France.

Quarantine restrictions on visitors are also determined by national governments, and the EU executive is taking a similar approach, calling for equal treatment for countries with a similar infection rate. We would also expect member states that follow certain measures in quarantine would apply the same rules towards other member states if they have similar epidemiological situations, the spokesperson said.

By the peak summer season, travellers across the EU will be able to check an interactive map drawn up by the European commissions science service that will provide information on the latest border controls and travel conditions, under the commission plans.

The EU executive will also urge member states to construct preparedness plans in case of a second wave of coronavirus. It suggest countries should only lift travel restrictions when virus containment measures, such as physical distancing, can be followed throughout a journey.

The World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on face masks has remained consistent during the coronavirus pandemic. It has stuck to the line that masks are for healthcare workers not the public.

Wearing a medical mask is one of the prevention measures that can limit the spread of certain respiratory viral diseases, including Covid-19. However, the use of a mask alone is insufficient to provide an adequate level of protection, and other measures should also be adopted, the WHO has stated.

Nevertheless, as some countries have eased lockdown conditions, they have been making it mandatory to wear face coverings outside, as a way of trying to inhibit spread of the virus. This is in the belief that the face covering will prevent people who cough and sneeze ejecting the virus any great distance.

There is no robust scientific evidence in the form of trials that ordinary masks block the virus from infecting people who wear them. There is also concerns the public will not understand how to use a mask properly, and may get infected if they come into contact with the virus when they take it off and then touch their faces.

Also underlying the WHOs concerns is the shortage of high-quality protective masks for frontline healthcare workers.

Nevertheless, masks do have a role when used by people who are already infected. It is accepted that they can block transmission to other people. Given that many people with Covid-19 do not show any symptoms for the first days after they are infected, masks clearly have a potential role to play if everyone wears them.

Sarah BoseleyHealth editor

Travel bans, grounded planes and closed borders caused by the pandemic response are proving disastrous for Europes tourism industry, which supports 27m jobs 12% of all employment in the union.

In an interview with the Guardian and other European newspapers, the European commissioner for the economy, Paolo Gentiloni, said Europes tourism industry would lose 40% of its income in 2020. It is obviously the hardest hit sector, he said, predicting a gradual recovery after Marchs total losses.

The commission will set out recommendations to promote hygiene in hotels and resorts on Wednesday. We will have a tourism season in summer, but with safety measures and limitations that [will make it] quite different from previous summer seasons, he said.

Gentiloni said countries faced different situations. His home country, one of the hardest hit by the virus, has already lost some of the biggest earning months of the year. In Italy, for example, the peak season was lost, because the richest part of tourism is frequently the tourists going for cultural trips to cities, and this is specially done from March to May, and then in September to October.

The United Nations World Tourism Organization predicted in March that global visitor numbers could fall by 20-30% in 2020, leading to losses of $450bn (362bn), but the impact on Europe is expected to be greater. Around half of all the worlds tourists visit Europe.

The commission has pledged to prioritise tourism in an EU recovery plan that is still being prepared.

Meanwhile, the commission has declined to back a call by more than a dozen EU member states calling for a relaxation of passenger rights rules that would allow cash-starved airlines to reimburse people with vouchers rather than money for cancelled flights.

The commission is expected to say customers should retain the right to a cash refund, but will propose common rules for vouchers to make them as attractive as possible.

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EU could reopen borders to tourists in Covid-19 recovery plan - The Guardian