An action plan “with concrete short and medium-term measures” to “rescue” the tourism sector. That is what the 17 MEPs on the European Parliament's Tourism Task Force expect from the EU.
The MEPs regard this sector as one of those that is most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and so on Tuesday 24 March they wrote to Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton and Transport Commissioner Adina Vălean.
In their letter, the MEPs welcome the adoption of recommendations on passenger rights (see EUROPE 12449/2), measures for the repatriation of citizens (see EUROPE 12452/8) and a proposal for derogation from the ‘80/20’ rule (see EUROPE 12451/18), but call for “a more targeted, concrete and coordinated response”.
In the letter, they put forward several recommendations, and state that thousands of people still have to be repatriated, thousands of companies cannot respond to the crisis and a large number of employees in the sector are at risk of losing their jobs.
In another letter, Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar (EPP, Portugal), José Ramón Bauzá Díaz (Renew Europe, Spain) and István Ujhelyi (S&D, Hungary), state that “this virus is costing the European tourism industry around €1bn per month in lost revenue”.
These three MEPs, who make up the Tourism Task Force’s steering group, have also submitted a number written questions to the European Commission.
“Is the Commission working in close cooperation with the tourism value chain, such as public bodies from Member States and private companies? Does it believe that there is a need for the establishment of crisis management tools and mechanisms for effective cooperation in the tourism sector as an answer to future similar events?”, the MEPs ask.
Although they are “aware that it is too early to fully estimate the impacts of this outbreak on the sector”, they nevertheless expect the Commission to provide them with details on “the actions it intends to implement”.
To read the letter, go to: https://bit.ly/2Jbtfgr (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)