“Our thoughts are now turning toward summer and to the places that we love to travel,” said Margrethe Vestager, a Commission deputy. “That means taking gradual, careful steps to help travel restart in line with what science tells us.”
Furthermore, it recommended Europe’s external borders remain closed for most travel at least until mid-June.
Nations that have experienced some of the world’s worst outbreaks appear in no hurry to let in large numbers of visitors. Two Spanish foreign ministry sources told Reuters that Spain plans to keep its borders closed to most travelers from abroad until July.
Many Europeans have already canceled plans.
“We were all set to take the kids to Spain and Italy this summer. But not now, it’s too risky even if it is allowed,” said Jean-Paul, a 57-year-old Frenchman, who has frozen hotel reservations he now hopes to use with his family in 2021.
“For now, we'll stay close to home and just enjoy some cycling, walking, and fishing instead.”
Europe’s museums, beaches, and plazas have been virtually empty since mid-March under a near-blanket travel halt that has destroyed jobs, pulverized the airline and hospitality sectors, and undermined Europe’s cherished principle of free movement in a bid to contain the virus.
Social-Distance Travel
Under the Commission’s proposals, airlines and airports would insist passengers wear masks and reorganize check-ins, dropoffs, and luggage pickups to avoid crowds. They would not require that middle seats be left empty on planes, a measure some airlines say would make profitable flying impossible.The Brussels-based Commission also wants vouchers for canceled flights or holidays to be valid for at least a year, with protection against bankruptcies, so people would accept them instead of demanding refunds from cash-strapped airlines and travel firms.
It said people should be able to stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, or go to beaches—though it stressed the situation would have to be monitored to prevent a new surge in infections.
“This looks like good news,” said Toni Mayor, president of a hotels’ association in Spain’s Valencia region which includes the major package holiday destination Benidorm. “If this combines with less pressure from the virus, as it seems, ... we might just be able to half-save the summer season.”
Already, the three Baltic states have decided to reopen borders to each others’ citizens from May 15, creating a “travel bubble.”
And Switzerland plans to completely reopen borders to all neighbors except Italy on June 15, provided the pandemic allows.
However, Italy warned against border pacts between individual EU nations, saying such deals could destroy the single market.
German Travel Agents Protest
Some of the biggest tourist destinations are in the hardest-hit countries, like Italy, Spain, and France, which are only opening up slowly.Spanish authorities are planning to keep the country’s borders closed to most travelers from abroad until July, two foreign ministry sources said on May 13.
Some countries are also planning to impose two-week quarantine periods for travelers arriving from abroad—including Britain, which has left the EU but is observing its trade and travel regulations until the end of the year while it negotiates its future relations with the bloc.
Within Europe’s “Schengen” area, where borders are normally invisible, at least 17 nations have imposed emergency border controls.
In Berlin, some drove buses past the Brandenburg Gate, emblazoned with banners. Hamburg airport tweeted a video showing socially distanced protesters at a terminal with suitcases on carts displaying signs saying “We travel agents won’t leave our clients out in the rain.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the aim was to eliminate border controls again from June 15 in the Schengen area, but also warned people against rushing back to normality too fast and thus endangering a tentative improvement of the health situation.