Tasks: Countries in Europe can open for tourism

The European Commission wants the borders between countries where the spread risk is estimated to be about the same to be gradually opened, in order for tourism to start again. It appears in leaked notes that, among other things, The Guardian took note of.

According to the British newspaper, the new recommendations will be presented by the Commission on Wednesday.

This is despite the fact that the EU has previously been critical of so-called "tourism corridors", where a number of member countries open borders between each other.

In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet, EU Vice-President Margarethe Vestager says that traveling within the EU may be resumed at the end of the summer.

- It is obvious that we can only give guidelines based on what we know now. We will probably know more about two months or four months. But we believe that at least part of the holiday season can be saved, perhaps by extending it to the beginning of the autumn, ”she tells Svd.

Already on May 15, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will open the borders between each other, to enable travel between the Baltic countries.

There are also plans to open the border between Germany and the Czech Republic and in June Austria will open its border with Germany. Discussions are also ongoing about opening up tourism between Greece and several other countries, such as Cyprus, Germany, Austria and Israel, writes The Guardian.

The recommendations on opening up tourism in the EU are part of a package for tourism that the European Commission will present at lunchtime on Wednesday, several media reports.

However, the recommendations are not binding and it is the Member States themselves that decide on the restrictions in their own country.

On Wednesday, the European Commission will also introduce the rules for reimbursement of canceled travel, TT writes. Some countries and travel companies have wanted to see an opening to exempt consumer protection and avoid reimbursements for travel canceled during the corona crisis.

However, according to Reuters, they are not expected to receive support from the EU, but instead are invited to a system where customers are replaced with vouchers, ie a kind of gift card that customers can use as payment for future trips.