Paris (AFP)
The European institutions are working on "finalized and harmonized rules at European level" to support this summer a tourism sector hit by the health crisis, said Tuesday the European Commissioner for the Internal Market Thierry Breton.
Closed since March due to containment measures linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, businesses that live off tourism all over Europe must "reopen as quickly as possible, as best as possible but with the most harmonized rules", warned the commissioner on French radio France Info.
Breton said he was helping develop "guidelines that will be made public very soon, in the coming days, to allow areas that are in a position to do so to welcome tourists."
Member states, which retain their prerogatives in health matters, will have to take account of these "clear health rules, validated by the health authorities and known to all", demanded the former French Minister of Economy.
These will mainly be rules of social distancing valid for restaurants, bars, hotels or places of entertainment. "The tourist must also know that he will be welcomed according to standards which protect him and also protect others".
Asked about the possibility for Europeans to travel inside the EU this summer, Mr Breton said that "certain zones will be open to tourists and others will not. We will have to respect zones which will not be treated identically, that’s how it is, it’s common sense, "he added, as member states embark on a gradual deconfinement in dispersed order.
For the former president of Thomson and France Telecom, a "Marshall plan for tourism" should be deployed using grants and not loans. The 27 are currently negotiating a "gigantic" stimulus fund, according to the commissioner who mentioned the range of "1,000 to 2,000 billion euros".
© 2020 AFP