The Commission will consider by 15 May whether to extend the measures restricting non-essential travel to the EU and will “shortly” publish guidelines on intra-EU travel for the coming summer period.
The Commission was reacting on Tuesday 21 April to Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton's statement on BFM TV that the Schengen area is expected to remain closed until the summer. “This is something to be expected”, the Commissioner said, referring to the restrictions on travel to the Schengen area and the EU, which are currently in force until 15 May.
Thierry Breton also indicated that the reopening of borders, this time within the Schengen area, was the subject of further discussion at the Commission, the objective being to find “an exit strategy that is as harmonised as possible” while “not everyone will come out of lockdown at the same time”.
“I hope that we will be able to go on travelling in Europe as soon as possible, although we are well aware that, in the coming phase, we will have to work with a certain number of constraints”, he said in the European Parliament Transport Committee.
Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said the guidelines on “how to restore travel in the EU” will be published soon, as countries are already considering bilateral systems, for example Austria and Germany. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Agathe Cherki)