The Czech Deputy Minister of Trade, Jan Fluxa, responsible for Tourism, presented to the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism on Thursday 8 December the conclusions adopted by the Council of the EU on 1 December on the ‘European Agenda for Tourism 2030’ (see EUROPE 13076/10).
Following his speech, a number of MEPs took the floor to make their remarks. The S&D side believes that the focus should also be on budgets and training.
“Almost 90% of the financial instruments are available through the Member States, so it is all up to the national governments. The Commission should evaluate the effectiveness of these financial instruments and find out how Member States are using them”, said István Ujhelyi (S&D, Hungarian).
In addition, he said, the S&D should “soon” transmit a statement to the Commission for a future initiative to organise a working group with the Ukrainian tourism agency to “rebuild European tourism”.
Valter Flego (Renew Europe, Slovenian) said that solutions should also be found for citizens of Member States not living on tourism, but residing in certain tourist regions, who have to “face soaring property prices, as well as food prices”.
Finally, for the Greens/EFA Group, it would also be important, in the context of the revival of the tourism sector, to ensure its future green, digital and sustainable transition.
“Tourism and sustainability go together, if there is clean mobility. We should not expect miracle solutions for decarbonising. Intermodality must be increased and the most sustainable modes must be the most affordable”, said Tilly Metz (Greens/EFA, Luxembourgish). (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)