“We will have a tourist season this summer” the European Union announced, proposing a gradual lifting of the borders to start tourism, which is highly affected by coronavirus.
Economic affairs commissioner Paolo Gentiloni’s “Our message is we will have a tourist season this summer even if it’s with security measures and limitations.,” statement signalling that the European Union had begun work for the summer season. While planing a gradual opening of closed borders in the European Union, including the Schengen area, Austria and Germany were the last two countries to participate in the opening of the borders. From tomorrow there will be random checks at border crossings and then on 15 June free movement should resume. “We want to make people’s everyday lives easier and take another step towards more normality,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said in a statement.
The plan drawn up by the European Commission on tourism, which accounts for 10% of European revenue, was based on the principles of safety and non-discrimination, the BBC reported. The non-binding plans involve countries working together to gradually remove travel bans and then border checks while keeping targeted measures as coronavirus outbreak comes under control across the member states. The plan, which would initially begin with allowing seasonal workers, would continue with the lifting of restrictions under a similar level of control between countries where the virus is present, followed by the opening of all EU internal borders.