The European Ministers of Tourism met informally on Monday 1 March on the initiative of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU, which wanted to take stock, at European level, of the recovery in travel and the revival of the tourism sector.
More specifically, Lisbon intended to “send a message to the Commission”, notably concerning the need to resume travel in the very short term.
A message that “has already been answered”, said the Portuguese Secretary of State for Tourism, Rita Marques, to EUROPE at the end of the meeting.
The same morning, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced to German MPs the presentation of a proposal for a digital vaccine passport: a ‘green pass’ aimed at “facilitating free movement within the EU and border crossings”, said the institution’s spokesperson, Eric Mamer, later that morning.
This announcement was the main topic of the videoconference of the Ministers of Tourism. It was highlighted on this occasion by the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, who was encouraged by the Portuguese Presidency to continue working in this direction.
However, according to one institutional source, other States have reportedly expressed reservations about the draft passport.
On the other hand, no Member State questioned the need to return to free movement. All of them have even reportedly wished for “harmonised criteria, to allow the lifting of restrictions and the resumption of tourism in the EU”, the Portuguese Secretary of State stressed.
The proposal is expected by mid-March
The proposal for the ‘digital green pass’ will be presented on 17 March and brought to the floor before European leaders on 25 March, said the Vice-President of the Commission, Margaritis Schinas, this Monday at an informal meeting of Health Ministers (see related article).
The dossier will be put forward by Commissioner Didier Reynders, responsible for free movement. This is the first time that the Commission has so explicitly made the use of this tool for free movement purposes.
According to the project described by Ms von der Leyen on her Twitter account, this digital vaccination passport would make it possible to “provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, results of tests for those who couldn’t get a vaccine yet, info on Covid-19 recovery”, for example on the acquisition of antibodies. Personal data protection provisions will be associated with this.
The use of this tool—discussed at length at the last informal summit of European leaders (see EUROPE 12666/3)—is particularly requested by the southern EU countries, which want sufficient security to save the summer tourist season.
According to one diplomat, as summer arrives and it takes some time to prepare this tool, the Commission is perfectly within its rights to bring this ‘passport’ forward already, by determining the health and data protection elements to be included in it, with a view to making it interoperable between Member States.
The fact that such a passport not only covers people who have been vaccinated also removes fears of discrimination, the source adds, although the vaccination rate of the European population is expected to have improved significantly by this summer, it says.
Resolving solvency problems
In addition to the resumption of mobility, Lisbon also wanted to make its voice heard on the subject of support for companies in the tourism sector—“the industry most affected by the restrictive measures”—commented the Portuguese Minister of Economy, Pedro Siza Vieira, in a statement ahead of the videoconference.
“All the Member States have recognised that the instruments are already in place, but need to be extended and adapted to the tourism sector”, explained Ms Marques.
There are several possibilities, according to her. One would be to further extend the Temporary Framework for State Aid put in place in response to the pandemic (see EUROPE 12639/3). This possibility, on which there was a broad consensus among the Ministers, received no comment by Commissioner Breton, a European official said.
“What we are trying to say is that liquidity problems could turn into solvency problems, if nothing is done”, Ms Marques insisted. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki and Solenn Paulic, with Sophie Petitjean)