Covid-19: EU agrees to phased border reopening to revive tourism sector

The European Union discussed on Wednesday the prospect of reopening borders between countries with a similar epidemiological situation based on bilateral agreements to revive the tourism sector hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the tourism minister of Croatia, which is currently holding the presidency of the council of the EU, said.

"If there is a possibility of striking bilateral agreements especially between the countries where the epidemiological situation is similar or even the same, we should also do that in order to speed up the recovery of tourism," Gari Cappelli said after the video conference of the EU ministers of tourism.

Last week, the European Commission published guidelines for lifting controls at the bloc's internal borders and reviving tourism.

The recommendations suggest that blanket restrictions to free movement should be gradually replaced by "more targeted measures." The restrictions, according to the commission, may first be lifted "between areas or Member States with sufficiently similar epidemiological situations.