Date Published: 23/03/2021
ARCHIVED - EU requests coherence in restrictions on domestic and international travel at Easter
ARCHIVED ARTICLE
Residents of Madrid can reach the Costas by taking connecting flights via Germany!
The inherent contradictions in Spain’s planned travel restrictions over the Easter holidays have caused such widespread bewilderment and criticism that on Monday the EU stepped into the debate, requesting that “coherence” be introduced as the threat of a fourth wave of coronavirus contagion looms.
As things stand at present the pandemic restrictions will make it impossible to travel among the 17 regions of Spain other than for certain well-defined “exceptional” reasons, and yet at the same time the lifting of bans on travel to this country in other EU member states means that thousands of visitors from Germany and Switzerland (among others) are expected to arrive in coastal resorts over the next few weeks. So nonsensical is the situation that in order for residents of Madrid to travel to second homes on the Mediterranean coast without contravening the rules it would be necessary for them to fly first to Germany (for example) and then to an airport serving the Costas.
Comments made by Christophe Wigand of the EU are a clear reference to the situation in Spain: “The recommendation clearly states that given that the risk of transmission is similar in domestic and international travel, member states should ensure coherence in the measures applied to both types of travel”.
That this contradictory situation has arisen is due to the fact that the EU governs cross-border travel in the Schengen Area but not within individual member states, and it has been decided that, technically at least, international borders are not closed at present. The Union can make recommendations and issue warnings but cannot enforce them: in recent weeks both Germany and Belgium have been criticized for banning non-essential international travel.
The EU maintains that the right to freedom of movement within the EU is fundamental to its priniciples, but member states do have the right to temporarily restrict access or close borders in exceptional circumstances.
It has to be said that the attitudes of national governments are a source of surprise not only in Spain but also elsewhere. In Germany, for example, just days after the government sparked a rush on plane tickets to Spain by lifting the travel bans to many regions of this country, Angela Merkel has announced a strict 5-day shutdown over Easter to combat rising infection rates as the British variant of Covid-19 spreads throughout the country.
Back in Spain, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, has responded to Mr Wigand by stating that the country’s travel restrictions are “in line” with the recommendations of the EU and that each of the country’s regions is adopting measures in order to contain contagion rates.
She also points out that just as a resident of Madrid can travel to Frankfurt at Easter but not to the Balearics, so a resident of Frankfurt can travel to the Balearics but not to Bonn. This again comes about as a result of the measures being decided at regional level, and while it may not appear coherent Sra González Laya is adamant that the Spanish government’s position will remain the same.
For frustrated residents of inland areas such as Madrid, who normally travel to the Spanish costas for Easter, this is certainly a sense of frustration, but it is equally hard to understand why islands such as the Balearics are so keen to receive foreign tourists, yet at the same time the regional government of the Balearic Islands is planning to issue an order this week closing the interiors of restaurants due to the rise in new cases; what is the point of tourists coming to the islands if the businesses cannot earn money from their presence due to the restrictions it could be asked.