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EU Unveils Its Plan to Save Summer Vacations

Associated Press

   BRUSSELS - The European Union unveiled Wednesday its plan to help
   citizens across the 27 nations salvage their summer vacations after
   months of tough coronavirus confinement and to hopefully resurrect
   Europe's badly battered tourism industry.
   Around 150,000 people have died across Europe and Britain since the
   virus surfaced in northern Italy in February, but with the spread of
   the disease tapering off, people in many countries are cautiously
   venturing out of confinement to return to work and some schools are
   reopening.
   A question on the minds of people, tour operators and the thousands of
   small businesses that depend on the tourism industry is whether the
   summer months this year will be reduced to a home-style "staycation."
   In a series of guidelines, the EU's executive arm, the European
   Commission, laid out its advice for lifting ID checks on hastily closed
   borders, helping to get airlines, ferries and buses running while
   ensuring the safety of passengers and crew, and preparing health
   measures for hotels to reassure clients.
   But a big question remains: will the countries of the world's biggest
   trading bloc follow the advice? Faced with a disease about which much
   is still unknown, national capitals have tended to go it alone, and
   they - not the EU Commission - have the final say over health and
   security matters.
   The commission's over-arching advice is that EU countries with similar
   rates of coronavirus infections and comparably strong health care
   systems should begin lifting border measures between each other.
   Tourists from outside Europe cannot enter until at least June 15.
   The move comes amid deep concern that Europe's ID-check free travel
   zone - the 26-country space known as the Schengen Area - is being
   strangled by controls, further harming virus-ravaged economies by
   limiting the movement of goods, services and people that are essential
   to business.
   In a tweet Wednesday, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced
   that: "On May 15 there will only be random checks at the
   German-Austrian border and on June 15 the border should be opened
   again."
   He said his government is looking to do the same "with Switzerland,
   Liechtenstein and neighboring countries in Eastern Europe, provided the
   infection numbers allow it."
   Even with restrictions easing, social distancing rules would apply, and
   the EU Commission is recommending that robust disease monitoring
   measures are put in place - including good testing capacity and contact
   tracing - so that people have the confidence to return to hotels and
   camping sites abroad.