As European countries are slowly exiting containment, but borders remain closed or controlled, it is time to think about safe summer vacations.
Europe is having a hard time waiting to live again. The tourism sector, representing 10% of the European Union’s GDP, is dying because of the health crisis, confinement measures and the ban of travelling. Hotels, lacking tourists, are requesting borders to reopen.
Like France, authorizing trips abroad for pressing family or business reasons, some European countries are making the border lockdown softer: citizens from the Baltic States (Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia) will soon be allowed to travel within these three countries, while Switzerland, Slovenia, Portugal and Hungary are also starting to authorize trips between borders for business and family matters.
Yet, the European Commission has recommended the twenty-seven countries of the Union to keep their borders outside the European Union closed until June 15th, what France is doing.
To make sure containment exit goes on smoothly, the European Union proposes a three-step scheme: first gradually lifting controls between neighboring countries; then, partial lift of controls within the Schengen area; and return to normal.
The European Commission will release within the week to come its propositions for a "gradual and partial" lifting of trip restrictions to the external borders of the European Union, starting from July 1, vice-president Josep Borrell announced this Wednesday.
