BRUSSELS: Brussels set out plans to reopen the EU’s internal borders on Thursday, even as the global coronavirus outbreak hit worrying new landmarks in the United States, Latin America and Russia.
The European Commission recommended that the 27 EU members fully reopen their frontiers with each other on June 15 and with the western Balkans from July 1.
The European Commission is recommending the lifting of restrictions on non-essential travel across the European Union’s (E.U.) external borders, beginning July 1. That means that, for the first time in four months, international visitors—not just those inside the E.U. bloc—will be able to start vacationing in Europe.
But, lifting the blanket ban on foreign tourism doesn’t necessarily mean that E.U. countries will be welcoming everyone equally. At the outset, travelers from high-risk areas, including the United States, may not be permitted entry. The current expectation is that travelers from low-risk countries will be the first green-lit for entry into Europe, as the COVID-19 infection rate wanes.TRENDING NOWCoronavirus Outbreak
European Commission Vice President, Josep Borrell, expressly encouraged more of “a gradual and partial lifting” of the ban during today’s press briefing.
Extending the current ban through the end of June was a move intended, “to prepare for a gradual opening thereafter,” said Terezija Gras, Croatian State Secretary for European and International Affairs. After member countries begin dissolving their own internal borders on June 15, the two-week window is meant to provide a little time to readjust to relaxed practices. Remember, when COVID-19 gripped the continent, the land and air borders between nations in the normally passport-free Schengen zone were slammed shut.
Now, at last, the time is coming to return to some semblance of normalcy. Still, the process should not be rushed, said Gras. “This reopening to travelers from countries outside the Schengen area and the E.U. must be done in a coordinated, proportionate and non-discriminatory manner,” she said.
Ultimately, the decisions about whom to allow through their individual borders will rest with the E.U.’s constituents, albeit based upon guidance from the Brussels-based European Commission. Borrell explained that nations are working together to devise a unilateral approach, which factors in certain shared “criteria” so that their policies will, “be based on a common, coordinated approach.”
Europe’s borders with the world beyond will open more gradually after that — and only to countries where the pandemic is seen as under control.
But, according to France 24, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson stated last week that not all E.U. countries are in agreement about the shared criteria for reopening themselves to the rest of the world, and some seem to be in more of a hurry than others.
By initially turning away high-risk travelers, the Commission presumably aims to alleviate concerns held out by some countries in the Union, including most of the Nordic members, which haven’t yet shown an interest in allowing entry to any except their immediate neighbors. The exception being Iceland, which is welcoming all Europeans from June 15 and is ready to test all inbound travelers for coronavirus, so they might avoid having to quarantine.
Reportedly, the Commission is set to release a detailed blueprint for E.U. border reopenings sometime later this week.
The United States, which has the world’s highest number of deaths and infections, marked a grim new milestone as recorded cases surged past two million Thursday.
Russia meanwhile passed the symbolic milestone of 500,000 confirmed cases, and Iran said 180,000 have been infected there.
Meanwhile, the death toll in Latin America passed 70,000 fatalities on Wednesday, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Brazil, the region’s worst-hit country, accounts for more than half of the total deaths in the region.
In all, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 416,000 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to an AFP tally of official sources.
At least 7.3 million cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories.
Against this gloomy backdrop, European countries — where figures suggest the outbreak is past its peak — are keen to get business moving again, particularly in the tourism sector.
“International travel is key for tourism and business, and for family and friends reconnecting,” EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said.
“While we will all have to remain careful, the time has come to make concrete preparations for lifting restrictions with countries whose health situation is similar to the EU’s.”
While travel from outside Europe is still restricted, within the bloc many countries — especially those dependent on tourism — have begun to relax bans on “non-essential” visits.
In Italy, at the Cavalieri Palace in the resort town of Jesolo on Venice’s Adriatic coast, German and Austrian families are once more grabbing the sunbeds.
The hotel’s owner Antonio Vigolo said they had begun to arrive as soon as the border reopened on June 3, despite Italy having formerly been at the epicentre of the epidemic.
German tourist Simone Freitag, her sunglasses perched on her head as she looked out to sea, told AFP: “We really feel safe in this hotel. They are doing a very good job. Everybody follows the rules.”
‘Prepared for the worst’
Ukraine on Thursday reported an “alarming” rise in cases, after a daily record of 689 new infections and outside Europe, in huge countries like India, Iran and Brazil, fear is rife.
In New Delhi, exhausted doctors at the Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital said they may not be able to cope if the easing of a lockdown that once curbed the movement of 1.3 billion sees a surge in cases.
“We don’t know when this is going to peak,” Dr Deven Juneja told AFP. “All of us are hoping for the best, but we are mentally and physically prepared for the worst.”
In Egypt, officials extended a night-time curfew by a further two weeks, and Malaysia decided it was not safe for its citizens to take part in the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca.