As expected, the European Commission proposed to the Schengen and EU Member States on Wednesday 13 May to gradually reopen their internal borders, which were closed at the beginning of March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting, in the current first phase (phase 0), the aim will be to make the current measures more flexible by, for example, making life easier for frontier workers, seasonal workers or workers who must travel to another Member State and are in transit. In this phase, controls should be relaxed, but still maintained.
In the second phase, the Commission proposes to move towards an almost total opening up of parts of borders according to regions with similar epidemic levels and putting in place the same health instructions (social distancing, masks). In this phase 1, border crossings in the identified areas should therefore be completely fluid in an ideal situation. And if this could not yet be the case, Member States would be invited to carry out non-systematic, but more targeted controls.
Finally, in the last phase (called phase 2), all borders would be open throughout the EU without restrictions, but with instructions, such as the maintenance of movement restrictions or distance rules.
The communication is careful not to put forward a timetable, as the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, pointed out that it is “the Member States that decide” on this matter.
Certain bordering Member States agreed with her on 13 May, suggesting that they had agreed among themselves to move gradually towards a return to normalcy.
The Interior Ministers of Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland have been in contact over the past few days and have indicated that their respective borders may reopen slightly more after 15 June. But until then, only crossings for frontier workers or certain profiles (separated couples) would be relaxed.
The time for a complete return to normality, as MEPs in particular would like, as well as the Commission though not yet ready at this point in time.
According to contacts between these Ministers, this would mean that after 15 June, people travelling from France to Germany, from France to Switzerland and vice versa, from Germany to Switzerland and vice versa, from Germany to Austria and from Austria to Germany would cross the border without having to justify themselves or show documents or identity papers.
But for a citizen of Latvia, for example, to be able to fly to Germany, France or Switzerland, a priori, that would be a later phase, one that would consist of telling all Member States that their nationals can now enter. It will also depend on air traffic.
According to a European source, these border openings will therefore, for the time being, only be coordinated between neighbouring countries. However, Austria and Switzerland have no plans to reopen their borders to Italians for the time being. France does not foresee any changes in the regime for Spain (which, moreover, will impose 14 days of quarantine on anyone arriving on its territory) or, until further notice, for Belgium.
Such ‘discrimination’ on the basis of different epidemiological regions is entirely possible and permitted by the Commission’s Communication. What the Commission prohibits, on the other hand, as Ylva Johansson reiterated on Wednesday, is discrimination on the basis of nationality. If a country decides to welcome all the residents of a single neighbouring Member State, it will not be able to ‘choose’ who enters. An Italian residing in Germany and present at the border between Germany and Austria should therefore be allowed to enter Austria.
If personal discrimination were to be found, the Commission could apply legal remedies on the basis of the 2004 Free Movement Directive. However, a European with symptoms of Covid-19 may still be ‘turned back’ during a border health check.
Link to the communication: https://bit.ly/3fNlhsI (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)