BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 13th June, 2020) The European Union, where the situation with COVID-19 is steadily improving, fails to formulate a common approach to reopening internal borders within the bloc that puts at risk tourism revenues of the southern European countries and once again shows that the EU is first of all just an economic free trade area.
European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson is desperately pushing all those countries which keep their borders with Schengen states closed to lift restrictions as soon as possible with June 15 set as a target. However, Johansson's attempt has failed so far as each country does what its government finds best, without taking any notice of the "recommendations" of Brussels.
JUNE 15 IS NOT ACCEPTED BY ALL COUNTRIES
Johansson's appeal to lift border restrictions on June 15 was mainly addressed to countries like Denmark, Austria, France, and Spain.
Denmark has announced border reopening starting from Monday for German, Norwegian and Icelandic tourists. Austria reopens its borders on June 16 for all except Italians. Spain plans to welcome tourists only in late June or even the beginning of July.
Croatia has already opened its borders to 10 EU states, including Germany, Slovenia, and Austria, but for the rest, the ban will be lifted on June 15.
Starting from Friday, Belgian citizens can go to Germany, the Netherlands or Luxembourg, but not to France, except for serious family reasons.
Athens has compiled a list of 29 countries whose citizens can come to Greece for non-essential purposes from June 15. The list includes some EU countries and other states such as Lebanon, Australia, China, and Japan. At the same time, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Italy � nations most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe � are not currently included in Greece's list. Athens said that the list should be extended by the end of June.
The European countries have understood that the COVID-19 crisis is best dealt with by sovereign member states, with borders in place. It is a slap in the face of ideologues of the "European United States" idea.
The summer holidays of millions of Europeans are shaping up to be a real headache. Some of them will have to abandon their plans to spend holidays in southern Europe or be ready for two-week quarantine once coming to the north or to the United Kingdom.
Italy has been one of the European countries most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with nearly 34,000 deaths. Disastrous videos of dozens of people in intensive care units dealt a severe blow to the idyllic image of tourism in Italy.
Due to this health crisis, Italy's GDP is expected to fall sharply in 2020 � between 8.3 and 14 percent, according to the official statistics. On June 3, shops, cafes and terraces reopened, and so did Italian museums, monuments and tourist sites, including Milan Cathedral and Pompeii archaeological site. Italy badly needs to save its tourist season, at least from July onwards.
Greece and Portugal are also opening up to tourists from June 15, while Spain with more than 27,000 COVID-19 deaths will continue to apply strict rules. Spain is the second world tourist destination, with tourism accounts for 12 percent of the GDP. Regarding the border opening, there has been a veritable cacophony: one day they reopen on July 1, the next day on June 15; one day with a quarantine, the next day without, and so on.
The latest news is that the Balearic Islands will be the first to reopen, starting to welcome German tourists since June 15. An agreement has been signed between the regional government and three German tour operators, which envisages that a maximum of 10,900 tourists will arrive in large groups over two weeks with body temperature controls upon arrival and telephone follow-ups from the authorities to check for the possible appearance of COVID-19 symptoms. Notably, more than 4.5 million Germans visit the Balearic Islands each year.
The rest of the country will be opened on July 1 to all other European nationals. The quarantine will not ultimately be imposed.
European tourism is an essential resource for these five main destinations: France, Italy, Spain, Greece, and Portugal.
As for the EU external borders, the European Commission will publish its proposals for a "gradual and partial" lifting of travel restrictions starting from July 1 next week, according to the bloc's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell. It would be a question of lifting the restrictions with certain third countries "by taking into account a certain number of principles and criteria and by basing itself on a common approach between member states," he explained.
It could not be foggier. It concerns tourism, but also very much business and employment. There are tens of thousands of Ukrainians working in Poland, and they cannot enter the EU for the moment. It could last even longer since the Ukrainian government has announced that the coronavirus was progressing in certain regions of the country. Poland and the EU will probably extend the delay for Ukrainian tourists and workers if the pandemic continues to develop in Ukraine.
The same goes for Morocco, and there are economic and employment issues involved since many agricultural workers from this African country travel to Spain on temporary work visas to harvest crops and fruit. They could not come to Spain during the first part of the season and that forced Spanish farms to use Bulgarian and Romanian workers.
Morocco is only starting to relax its confinement measures. This week, hundreds of French tourists were finally allowed to get out of Morocco and were repatriated to the Sete commune after being stranded in the African country for two months.
Morocco has been implementing the first phase of its plan to relax containment measures since Thursday. But not all regions of the country are subject to the same treatment. The kingdom is now divided into two separate areas. If the majority of Moroccans can live an almost normal life, 39 percent of the population remains confined until further notice. A situation deemed "untenable" by many residents of large cities, where the restrictions have all been maintained.
For the rest of the world, the re-opening of borders might take a while, depending on the evolution of the pandemic. The European Commission wants to establish a "white" list of countries in the rest of the world where European tourists could travel to this summer.
