- The Ciudadanos MEP, José Ramón Bauzá, emphasizes that “from the European Union we must convey to citizens confidence that it is safe to travel to Spain or Italy”
Brussels, Thursday April 23, 2020. The transport spokesperson of the liberal group Renew Europe in the European Parliament, José Ramón Bauzá, has asked this Thursday the Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean, and the Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, a common security protocol at European Union airports in order to assure citizens that it is safe to travel across the continent and promote intra-community tourism.
This same week, the Citizens MEP proposed the Internal Market Commissioner create a strategic recovery plan for the tourism sector based on the 'Europe Brand' which was intended to promote tourist activity in the summer season, but this cannot be made effective "if passengers are reluctant to leave their country for fear of becoming infected."
“Particularly southern European countries such as Spain and Italy, especially dependent on tourism, have been affected by the coronavirus much higher than that of other European countries., so, from the European Union, we have to give citizens confidence to travel to these countries,” said Bauzá.
In this way, the Renew Europe MEP has demanded that the community executive must “guarantee that the health protocols established at each of the airports, both of origin and destination, are identical", in order to minimize the risk of contagion and "demonstrate that Europe is the safest destination in the world thanks to, among other things, the security measures decreed within airports."
The MEP recalled that “in this health crisis in which we are immersed, the most urgent thing is to save lives, but The next priority must be to save jobs, and a large part of the employment of the twenty-seven depends on the tourism sector«. “A tourist season without reservations can represent an economic prejudice that could lead to an economic and social crisis, not as serious as the health crisis, but with dire consequences,” he stressed.
Bauzá concluded by addressing the representatives of the Commission directly to demand that they “establish, through meetings with all the transport ministers of the Member States, a common protocol so that intra-community tourists and, when restrictions are opened, those from other parts of the world, know that Europe is the safest destination in the world”.
