Europe´s borders reopen for `summer unlike any other´

Borders were thrown open across Europe today as a raft of countries including Germany and France lifted three months of coronavirus checks. 

Motorists were queuing to enter France from Italy and Germany from Denmark this morning after emergency checks were lifted overnight. 

Spain is allowing thousands of Germans to fly to the Balearic Islands from today in a trial run for resuming its tourist season, after Germany lifted its travel warning for the EU. 

However, several countries including Greece are still excluding Britons because of the UK’s high death rate while Swedes are similarly unpopular in many countries. 

Britons are allowed into Belgium, Switzerland and Italy but not Greece or Austria and will have to quarantine in France, and the Foreign Office is still advising against unnecessary travel. 

In addition, most of the continent is still closed to visitors from Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Americas – although Greece is allowing some tourists from further afield. 

France’s borders are open for travel within Europe, but Paris is insisting on reciprocity – meaning a 14-day quarantine for British visitors.   

The French government has criticised the ‘uncoordinated fashion’ in which Britain imposed the quarantine after initially saying that France would be exempt.  

At present, the UK Foreign Office is still advising Britons against ‘all non-essential international travel’ in any case. 

Announcing Monday’s reopening of borders, French president Emmanuel Macron said it is time ‘to turn the page of the first act of the crisis’ and ‘rediscover our taste for freedom’. 

But he warned: ‘This doesn’t mean the virus has disappeared and we can totally let down our guard… the summer of 2020 will be a summer unlike any other.’ 

Germany and Belgium among those opening their borders today in line with an EU directive to resume travel by mid-June. 

All nine of Germany’s land borders are open and the country is allowing flights from Italy, but not Spain until June 21. Some flights to London have continued all along.   

Germany and the Netherlands have both lifted their warnings against non-essential foreign travel in Europe, although Germany is advising against travelling further afield until at least August 31.    

Austria has already opened its borders to most of its neighbours and will lift travel restrictions for 31 countries tomorrow, but not including the UK or Sweden.

German chancellor Angela Merkel and her Austrian counterpart Sebastian Kurz are both planning to holiday in their homelands this year.

‘The recommendation is still, if you want to be really safe, a holiday in Austria,’ Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg told ORF television, recalling the scramble in March to bring home thousands of tourists as borders slammed shut.

‘In Austria, you know that you don’t have to cross a border if you want to get home, and you know the infrastructure and the health system well,’ he said. 

The Dutch government said its citizens can now visit 16 European nations, but urged caution.

‘You can go abroad for your holiday again,’ foreign minister Stef Blok said.

‘But it won’t be as carefree as before the corona crisis. The virus is still among us and the situation remains uncertain.’

Greece has gone further, allowing travellers from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, China, Israel and Lebanon – but not Britain.  

Greece’s two main airports in Athens and Thessaloniki will reopen to arrivals from 29 countries from Monday, the start of the tourist season. Sea connections with Italy and land borders with the Balkans are also re-opening.  

Spain will only start to lift travel restrictions on June 21, re-establishing free travel with some of its fellow EU countries.

Prime minister Pedro Sanchez yesterday moved that date forward by 10 days, saying that ‘the re-opening of our frontiers is a critical moment’. 

However, Spain’s Balearic Islands are welcoming 11,000 Germans from today in a pilot project for the revival of the crucial tourism sector. 

‘This pilot programme will help us learn a lot for what lies ahead in the coming months,’ Sanchez said. 

‘We want our country, which is already known as a world-class tourist destination, to be recognised as also a secure destination.’

Spain’s land border with Portugal will remain closed until July 1. Portugal has suffered a much lower death rate than Spain from the coronavirus epidemic.  

Denmark opens its borders to Germany, Norway and Iceland for visitors from Monday as long as they can show they plan to stay outside the capital Copenhagen for at least six consecutive nights. 

Norway and Denmark are keeping their borders closed with Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a high per capita death rate. 

Romania has not yet announced when it will re-open its borders to foreigners without restrictions.  

Italy, which has been among the world’s hardest hit by the new coronavirus pandemic, reopened its borders on June 3, lifting all restrictions for travellers from within Europe.

Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia and Slovenia have also already begun to lift restrictions for foreigners entering their countries but excluded those from nations they deem as not safe. 

Poland has reopened its borders to all fellow EU members and the UK from June 13. Sweden meanwhile never closed its borders to EU countries.

Neither did tiny Luxembourg – but quickly found all its neighbours closing their borders instead.