The summer season is almost here, and the European countries are set not
to let summer 2020 repeat itself.
European Union Member States, in particular those that heavily rely on
tourism, have started to prepare for summer 2021 early at the beginning of the
year in an attempt to revive travel to their territory by enabling tourists to
safely visit.
Increased testing capacity, total lockdowns at the beginning of the year
in a bid to lower the numbers of cases, complete bans on non-essential
arrivals, especially from countries with virus mutations, have all been parts
of these attempts, SchengenVisaInfo.com
reports.
Moreover, the Member States, under the recommendation of the EU, for
long now, have been applying traffic light systems in order to differentiate the
risk of travel from the rest of the EU countries, imposing restrictions on
arrivals based on this system.
The most serious idea within the block has undoubtfully been the creation of the travel certificate, proposed first to
the EU Commission by the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
While the EU has been working on a unified approach for the creation of such a
document, the Member States have moved forward
establishing their own schemes, claiming that once the EU’s document
is ready, they would align their national document with it.
Last weekend, the EU Council’s Permanent
Representatives Committee (Coreper) unanimously showed their support for an
agreement on the EU travel certificate, previously reached between the Council and the European Parliament on May 20.
Now for the procedures for the document to be completed, the Council
will send a letter to the European Parliament, officially communicating the
support of the Coreper on the agreement for the establishment of the
certificate.
After the legislation is signed into effect, the regulations will be
published in the Official Journal of the EU and apply from July 1.
In the meantime, the journey of each Member State towards the reopening
has been different from the others and has often depended on how the country
handled the virus at the very start and later on the vaccination campaign
rollout.
Recently, countries that rely more on tourism, like Greece, have rushed
to facilitate entry restrictions and open to international tourists step by
step. Even some countries, like France that at the beginning had a tough stance
on the reopening of the borders for international travellers, now are slowly
catching the pace.
Below, find out how some of the EU and Schengen Area countries have
reopened their borders and are preparing to reopen for international tourists
this summer.
France
One of the top tourism destinations in Europe, France, has experienced a massive loss of €103 billion during 2020
after the travel and tourism sector’s contribution to France’s gross domestic
product (GDP) dropped by 48.8 per cent amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the country is set to stop such a massive loss from taking
place again in 2021.
In mid-April, French President Emanuel Macron revealed that France was
in its last stage of finalising a plan for the lifting
of travel restrictions for vaccinated travellers from the European
Union and some third countries like the United States.
“We will progressively lift the restrictions of the beginning of May,
which means that we will organise in the summertime with our professionals in
France for French European citizens, but as well for American citizens,” he
said.
And while the beginning of May has come and gone, France still claims it
is working on a concrete solution to permit entry for vaccinated tourists from
all around the globe through “a special pass”, as President Macron said.
Instead of the “special pass,” the country has revealed its plans to start categorising other countries
according to their COVID-19 situation through the traffic light system,
which is currently applied by several other European countries.
The system is used to determine the quarantine measures and other travel
restrictions travellers fall subject to by categorising countries in three
colours – green, orange and red, based on the number of COVID-19 cases in the
previous two weeks before the update of the measures.
“Regarding countries that are outside the European area [EU and
Schengen zone countries], we will work on lists and colours. There will be the
green countries, orange countries and red countries,” French Minister of
Foreign Affairs Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said to Europe 1 on May 8.
The Minister did not clarify what rules would apply to each country, yet
he noted that “only five or six green countries at the moment.” The
chances are high that these countries are among the ones in the EU Council’s list of epidemiologically safe third
countries. Since May 6, the following countries are on this list:
Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand, as
well as China (including Hong Kong and Macao).
Yet, in spite of its plan to reopen for tourism from third countries,
the French government has once again shown its determination to prevent
COVID-19 cases from being imported from other countries, in particular those
with COVID-19 mutations.
On May 7, the government expanded the list
of countries for arrivals from which stringent entry restrictions apply
by adding Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and United
Arab Emirates. Previously, since April 24, in the list have been Brazil,
Argentina, Chile and South Africa.
Greece
A favourite summer destination in particular for Europeans living in the
landlocked Member States – Greece, which heavily depends on the tourism sector,
has been working since the beginning of the year to reopen its borders in time
for summer.
“We will open on May 14, and we will open safely, despite the danger,”
Greece’s Tourism Minister Harry Theocharis said in
the Greek Parliament on April 6, after in early March the government
unfolded its plan for the reopening of the tourism
sector.
Before May 14, the country reopened its borders to several third
countries, including the United States, the United
Kingdom, Serbia, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.
In late April, arrivals from more third countries were allowed to enter
Greece without having to follow quarantine
restrictions include Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia,
Rwanda, Singapore, and Thailand.
In order to prepare in time for the summer season, the country has also speeded up vaccinations for workers in several industries,
including tourism.
Spain
For over a month now, Spanish authorities
have been warning of their plans to permit entry for British tourists,
which make up the largest share of foreign tourists during the summer season in
Spain, in order to help revive the tourism sector in the country.
On May 24, Monday, a new decree approved by
the Spanish government took effect, permitting Britons to enter the country
without the need of isolating or testing for COVID-19.
In addition, the outsourcing service provider in charge of receiving
Spain visa applications, BLS, has announced the
reopening of Spanish visa application centres in several countries of the world.
The reopening of visa centres means that the reopening of borders for arrivals
from these countries could happen in the near future.
Spanish borders are currently open for arrivals from other third
countries – Australia, Israel, Rwanda, New Zealand, South Korea, Singapore,
China, and Thailand.
Whereas, starting from June 7, all vaccinated travellers with one of the
vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) can fly to Spain from
any country.
Iceland
Iceland is that one Schengen Area country that has opened the borders
the earliest for vaccinated travellers worldwide while at the same time keeping
low the rates of COVID-19 new cases.
On April 6, Iceland started permitting entry
for vaccinated travellers from anywhere in the world who have
received one of the vaccines approved by the EMA. The authorities, at the same
time, decided to permit entry for those who had recently recovered from the
Coronavirus and could prove it.
Yet, the country took all the necessary measures not to become a transit
point to the rest of the Schengen Area for foreign travellers.
At the same time, it kept tough restrictions in place, obliging to
isolate in government facilities all arrivals from
countries with high rates of Coronavirus cases, where a 14-day
Coronavirus case notification rate surpasses 500 per 100,000.
However, SchengenVisaInfo.com announced on
May 24 that Iceland would remove the entry ban and quarantine requirement for
travellers from high-risk countries who have been vaccinated or
recovered from the Coronavirus recently.
The latter decision has been taken at a time when the government of
Iceland intends to vaccinate at least 60 per cent of its total population by
June.
Germany
Germany remains among the EU countries with the slowest progress towards
the reopening of the travel and tourism sector for foreign travellers.
One of the few steps that the German government has taken in this regard
is to allow vaccinated travellers, as well as those
who have fully recovered from the COVID-19, to skip testing and quarantine
requirements when entering the country.
The rule, however, applies only to travellers who so far have been
permitted to enter the country, under entry ban exemptions, or who are
travellers from one of the other EU/Schengen Area countries with a low COVID-19
incidence and no virus mutations.
And, while Spain has decided to reopen its borders for arrivals from the
UK completely restriction-free, Germany has added the UK to the list of high-risk countries
where COVID-19 mutations have widely spread on May 23. The decision
means that an entry ban is now imposed on travel and transport from the UK.
Italy
On May 16, Italy abolished an entry ban on
vaccinated travellers from the Schengen Area and European Union Member States
as well as from the United Kingdom and Israel. Yet, Italy kept in place the
five-day quarantine requirement and testing against COVID-19 in place for
travellers from these countries.
The decision followed a warning of the
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who said that Italy would put
into use its national green pass without waiting for the EU COVID-19 travel
certificate.
Travellers from the United States and other non-European countries that
are considered low risk, like Japan, Canada, Australia and Singapore, can also
enter the country for non-essential purposes, but they still need both a
Coronavirus test and a ten-day quarantine.
However, the country has announced its plans to permit travellers from
the United States, Canada, and Japan to enter without being subject to any
entry restrictions if they are fully vaccinated against the virus.
Just like some other European countries, like Spain and Greece, Italy’s
economy also widely depends on international tourism, which pre-pandemic, in
particular during the summer season, reached its peaks.
Data shows that the country has lost a total
of €120.6 billion due to the Coronavirus restrictions on travel and tourism,
which then caused a 51 per cent decrease in the contribution of the industry to
Italy’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020.
Portugal
Portugal opened its borders for tourists from the other EU Member States, as well as the four non-EU Schengen
area countries – Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland on May 17.
Travellers from the former EU member, the United Kingdom, were also permitted
to enter.
The authorities put in place an obligation to test for COVID-19 within
72 hours before arrival in Portugal for all travellers from these countries.
Switzerland
The non-EU Schengen Area country, Switzerland, is also reopening its
borders through phases. It is expected that the country will decide on May 26,
Wednesday, on a proposal of the Swiss Federal
Council, which foresees permitting quarantine-free entry for travellers who are
vaccinated against COVID-19.
At the end of April, Switzerland announced
it was working on the development of a standardised counterfeit-proof and
internationally recognised COVID-19 certificate. The authorities
claimed at the time that the certificate will be available in time for summer
and would serve to all persons vaccinated against the virus, as well as those
who have recently recovered from the virus. Those who do not fit in the two
categories previously mentioned would be able to enter by getting tested for
COVID-19.
At the time, the authorities had noted that the Swiss certificate would
be as flexible as possible in order that when further details are made known on
the EU’s digital green certificate, it could be adjusted to meet the latter.
Denmark
Denmark is also gradually reopening its borders through phases. On May
1, the Danish government started the second
phase of its reopening plan by allowing fully vaccinated
travellers and children under 18 who are permanent residents in Denmark to
travel to countries on the orange list.
Phase three of the gradual reopening of travel
activities to and from Denmark, which started on May
14, saw the country relax its restrictions for countries and regions placed on
the yellow list by exempting from the obligation of quarantine travellers
coming from these parts of Europe.
The incidence limit for opening and closing the yellow and orange
countries and areas in the EU and Schengen members has also been increased from
20/30 as it was before to 50/60 per every 100,000 residents in a period of
seven days.
For now, arrivals to Denmark from an area in the EU/Schengen, placed in
the orange list, are permitted to enter the country for non-essential purposes.
Yet, they remain subject to self-isolation and testing obligation.
Exempt from these requirements are all those who are permitted to enter
that can prove they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have recovered
from the virus.
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