Schengen difficult to restart after the system crisis – POLITICO
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Forget Schengen. Welcome to the 80s.
The European free travel area, made up of 22 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, has had an imminent death experience most member countries it re-established border controls to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
This is authorized by Schengen rules if countries are "critically endangered by public order or internal security", but there is no indication of how to revive them. This is what the Commission is trying to tackle in a package to be adopted on Wednesday, issuing guidelines for EU countries on how to lift internal borders and restrictions of travel.
It is a deeply sensitive subject for countries like Greece, Italy and Spain, which depend on a revival of tourism to save their economy.
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"It's like traveling in a time machine to a dark and distant past. Now we have to go back to the future. We are back to normal, and we have to do it as soon as the health situation allows, "said Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson. saying
For now, the travel zone is a tangle of unilateral border closings, bilateral tourism agreements and free movement bubbles.
The Commission will present a two-step approach, according to a communication project seen by HEAVEN32. First, countries with a comparable epidemiological situation. as assessed by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control They should lift travel restrictions between themselves, provided they respect social distance. Th is, for example, seems to be a problem for Greece to attract British tourists, as the coronavirus has been much more serious in the United Kingdom.
It is only in a second phase that travel will be re-established throughout the Schengen area and beyond.
For now, the travel zone is a tangle of unilateral border closings, bilateral tourism agreements and free movement bubbles.
"There is a lot of fragmentation in the single market in the free movement of people and goods," said Petra De Sutter, chair of the European Parliament's internal market committee. Restoring an operational Schengen will not be easy because "we are really on the verge of tension between competition from the EU and the Member States".
Travel bubbles
Some countries create free movement groups. Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia last week Okay to lift travel restrictions and the obligation to undergo two weeks of quarantine for its citizens from this Friday. People returning from other countries will still have to isolate themselves.
"We agree that the three Baltic countries have slowed the spread of the coronavirus enough. We also trust the health systems of others," said Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis about the decision. Facebook.
The Baltic bubble could expand as countries seek to add Poland and Finland in their free travel zone.
France and the United Kingdom have agreed to allow travelers from France to travel without quarantine through the canal, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron said in a statement. joint statement Sunday. However, this was not confirmed by the UK exit strategy released on Monday.
The European Commission expects the UK to "apply the same type of exemptions to arrivals from other Member States which are in an epidemiological situation similar to that of France", a Commission spokesman said Tuesday because it would be illegal according to EU law discriminates on the basis of nationality However, it would be possible to discriminate on the basis of residence, if the latter is based on an epidemiological assessment.
On the continent, the restrictions imposed by Belgium on "non-essential" cross-border travel have become irritating. The Benelux Parliament, made up of appointed legislators from Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, He is working on the proposals to "offer the people a prospect of opening the borders between the three countries," he said last week.
Belgian Minister of the Interior and Foreign Trade Pieter De Crem | Thierry Roge / AFP via Getty Images
Belgian Interior Minister Pieter De Crem remains in contact with his border counterparts from neighboring countries, confirmed a spokesperson, but it is not known when free movement will be possible again. "It depends on many factors, including the spread of the virus and the way it is treated," he said.
Immunity passport, air corridors and "smart solutions"
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in April that Europeans will find "smart solutions" to go on vacation this year, and EU governments have followed suit with a large number of 39; announcements.
Greece is working on the idea of allowing tourists to enter who would test before traveling. "They can only get on the plane with a negative test or with a positive antibody test," said Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. he said to CNN last week.
However, there is no scientific clarity on the reliability of these tests or whether the contraction of the virus leads to immunity, and the World Health Organization and ECDC are currently advise against A great approach.
The most popular tourist destinations hope to conclude agreements with countries they consider to be at low risk of importation of the virus.
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Monday that "the government is working to gradually boost domestic and foreign tourism … freedom of movement is one of the four fundamental freedoms on which rests the European building and cannot be ignored ".
The most popular tourist destinations hope to conclude agreements with countries they consider to be at low risk of importation of the virus.
Croatian Minister of Tourism Gari Cappelli told local media Zagreb was in talks with the Czech Republic on the possibility of creating an air corridor to allow the Czechs to go on vacation to Croatia.
Croatia wants to introduce a travel protocol at EU level "with mutually harmonized regulations, while allowing each country to adapt to all this according to the evolution of the situation in within its borders … which is currently under discussion, "he said. a spokesperson. for the current Croatian Presidency of the European Council, adding: "Croatia will discuss bilateral possibilities for opening borders during this month and during the next period depending on the interests of each country."
Prime Minister Antonio Costa | Patricia De Melo Moreira / AFP via Getty Images
Austrian Minister of Tourism Elisabeth Köstinger, who in April told me Austria would be happy to welcome the Germans during the holidays, she told HEAVEN32 in a statement that she feels "reassured in the position that Austria has taken at over the past few weeks, which has allowed us to move forward with confidence towards a gradual and measured opening of our borders. "
Austria has managed to keep the death toll below 700 and "with constant observation of the number of infections, we must gradually reopen the borders," said Köstinger.
In Portugal, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said that national and international tourism should resume from July. But for now, the border with Spain, where the epidemic has claimed more than 26,000 lives, is still closed.
"We are working on this balance, returning to a possible normalcy and respecting the rules on the movement of people in tourism, whether national or international, and this is analyzed with great care to maintain security and prevent new infections. " told me Graça Freitas, Director of the General Directorate of Health of Portugal, an agency of the Ministry of Health.
Restoring a full Schengen will be a matter of months, not weeks, said an EU official.
The complexity of the situation from a health, legal and political point of view will not be resolved in the short term. "It is a very difficult task. Member States have introduced different measures in an uncoordinated manner. The removal of these different national restrictions will take some time," said Commissioner for Home Affairs Johansson. he said last week.
Restoring a full Schengen will be a matter of months, not weeks, said an EU official.
"We still have a lot of political work to do to convince citizens of the benefits of open borders and a fully functioning single market rather than fragmenting it," said MEP De Sutter.
Florian Eder contributed to the reports.
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