EU pushes for coordinated reopening of European borders

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The European Commission has decided to recommend reopening the internal borders for June 15 and the external borders of the European Union from July 1 when disorder threatens. Greece is thus already considering reopening its airports to Australian, Chinese and Korean tourists.

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With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet

The European Commission has chosen not to impose a date to reopen the internal borders and Schengen (which also concern Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). It is content to recommend a reopening for June 15. A non-binding deadline in a way, but she believes that most European countries seem to be converging on this deadline.

Consequently, Brussels urges those who had other agendas to reconsider their plans. This is for example the case for Spain, which still has plans to keep its land borders closed until June 22 despite criticism from Portugal.

The European Commission is trying to regain control. For her, it is absolutely necessary to reopen all internal borders before proceeding to reopen the external borders of the European Union which was decreed on March 17.

For the Commission, the EU must reopen its external borders from 1 July automatically for all the Balkan countries like Serbia or Albania, and gradually for the others, only on the basis of common criteria.

The Commission puts forward evaluation instruments with regard to the ebb of the pandemic in each country examined with, for example, compliance with the rules of the World Health Organization or sanitary measures at airports.

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