Astypalea, Greece
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LONDON – Looking for a holiday in Greece or Spain? You can wait a while.
European leaders are expected to say on Thursday that all non-essential travel should be curtailed as the Covid health situation across the continent remains ‘serious’, according to a document seen by CNBC.
The 27 heads of state of the European Union will virtually meet on Thursday afternoon to discuss the current state of the pandemic in the region. The EU is still one of the worst-hit parts of the world by the coronavirus, with a number of countries still locked up or strict social restrictions in place. At the same time, vaccination efforts have had a bumpy start and some are asking whether the EU will reach its target of vaccinating 70% of its adult population by the summer.
“The epidemiological situation remains serious, and the new variants present additional challenges. We must therefore maintain strict restrictions while intensifying efforts to accelerate the supply of vaccines,” European leaders are expected to say according to the draft document.
According to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control, there have been more than 21 million cases and more than 515,000 deaths due to Covid-19 in Europe so far. Since the end of 2020, health authorities have identified a number of new variants of the virus that are considered more widespread and contagious.
The new varieties have become the dominant species in many Member States.
Charles Michel
President of the European Council
The ongoing health emergency is particularly acute in the Czech Republic and parts of Latvia, Sweden, Spain and Portugal.
The President of the European Council, Charles Michel, who is chairing the summit, said before the meeting: “The new variant has become the dominant tribe in many member states. It implies improving our succession and the preparation of the basis for vaccine updates. “
Given the health crisis, European leaders are not yet inclined to ease travel restrictions.
“For the time being, non-essential travel should be restricted,” according to the document.
This will be bad news for countries that are heavily dependent on tourism. Greece, for example, has pushed the EU to agree on a kind of vaccine passport so that it can more easily reopen its tourism industry in time for the summer season.
However, it seems that leaders are far from agreeing with this idea. Some heads of state believe that it is too early to consider a vaccination passport, as the deployment of vaccines is still at such an early stage.
Rickard Gustafson, CEO of Scandinavian Airlines, told CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Thursday that vaccine passports or similar identifications “could help reopen the world, but … I’m worried it may not be a national standard, it must be an international standard. “
In addition, to make this idea work, Gustafson said it should be applied to ‘all other means of transport’.
“It’s not just an aviation issue. It should be used to the same extent for all other transport, because if you cross a border, it doesn’t really matter if you do it by plane, by train, by car, by train bus , ‘he said.
The implementation of something like vaccine passports in Europe will be particularly challenging due to the free movement policy.
European citizens often use trains, buses and other means of transport to travel between EU countries and during these journeys their passports are not checked. If such has to verify the vaccination of certificates at the border, it can cause logistical problems, and it can deter potential tourists from taking foreign trips.