BRUSSELS: EU member states are divided over whether to continue to exclude travelers from countries struggling with the coronavirus, such as the United States, when reopening Europe’s borders on July 1.
On Friday, diplomats were still locked in a days-long series of talks on drawing up criteria for reopening borders, with some countries worried about the reliability of coronavirus data, notably from China.
But with their economies in freefall from the pandemic, Greece, Spain, France and other top tourism destinations are hoping to salvage at least some of the summer holidays and open the door to visitors.
Countries highly dependent on tourism “want to reopen ASAP for as many as possible,” an EU diplomat told AFP.
“The others are reticent to move fast to save eight weeks of tourism season, however important it may be.”
Non-essential travel to the bloc has been banned since mid-March and the restrictions are to be gradually lifted starting July 1, as the pandemic recedes — at least in Europe.
Greece, however, has already reopened airports to travelers from several countries beyond Europe, including China and South Korea, and capitals will eventually make their own decisions.
“A European agreement is essential,” said Spanish government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero.
“We want an agreement and to avoid health risks. If a country allows entry, there is free movement. We urge that an agreement be reached now, quickly and shortly before 1 July.”
Whatever is decided in Brussels will stand only as a recommendation since border control remains a national competence and governments can in the end go their own way.
For travel purposes, Britain still counts as a member of the European Union until the end of its post-Brexit transition period. Four non-EU countries are members of the bloc’s Schengen passport-free zone.
Some EU members want to limit the reopening to countries with an epidemiological situation “comparable or better” than that in the bloc — that is with 16 or fewer cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over the past two weeks.
If that criteria is confirmed, and if the members agree that other countries’ reporting is accurate — travelers from the United States, Brazil and Canada would remain banned.
Those arriving from China, Japan, Australia, Morocco, Venezuela, India, Cuba and the Balkans would be welcome.
However, the health-based criteria has collided with geopolitics, with some countries reluctant to ban the US while welcoming visitors from China, where the pandemic began.
One possible scenario would see the list updated every two weeks, allowing for a swift removal of banned countries as the pandemic evolves.
The United States is currently the country most affected by Covid-19 with more than 121,000 deaths — while Europe believes it has passed the peak of its own outbreak.
More than 2.3 million cases have been detected in the US and several states in the south and west experiencing powerful outbreaks.
Asked about the reopening of transatlantic travel, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday said Washington was “working with our European counterparts to get that right.”
“We’ve denied travel to Europe and vice versa. That’s the posture that we all sit in now and I think we’re all taking seriously the need to figure out how to get this open,” Pompeo told a forum.
EU split on reopening Europe to countries with virus
https://arab.news/4b64v
EU split on reopening Europe to countries with virus
- Non-essential travel to the bloc has been banned since mid-March and the restrictions are to be gradually lifted starting July 1, as the pandemic recedes
- Whatever is decided in Brussels will stand only as a recommendation since border control remains a national competence
Indian writer Arundhati Roy pulls out of Berlin Film Festival over Gaza row
- Writer withdraws after jury president Wim Wenders said cinema should 'stay out of politics' when asked about Gaza
- Booker Prize winner describes Israel’s actions in Gaza as 'a genocide of the Palestinian people'
BERLIN: Award-winning Indian writer Arundhati Roy said Friday she was withdrawing from the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders’s comments that cinema should “stay out of politics” when he was asked about Gaza.
Roy said in a statement sent to AFP that she was “shocked and disgusted” by Wenders’s response to a question about the Palestinian territory at a press conference on Thursday.
Roy, whose novel “The God of Small Things” won the 1997 Booker Prize, had been announced as a festival guest to present a restored version of the 1989 film “In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones,” in which she starred and wrote the screenplay.
However, she said that the “unconscionable” statements by Wenders and other jury members had led her to reconsider, “with deep regret.”
When asked about Germany’s support for Israel at a press conference on Thursday, Wenders said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics,” describing filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics.”
Fellow jury member Ewa Puszczynska said it was a “little bit unfair” to expect the jury to take a direct stance on the issue.
Roy said in her statement that “to hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping.”
She described Israel’s actions in Gaza as “a genocide of the Palestinian people by the State of Israel.”
“If the greatest film makers and artists of our time cannot stand up and say so, they should know that history will judge them,” she said.
Roy is one of India’s most famous living authors and is a trenchant critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, as well as a firm supporter of the Palestinian cause.
Shying away from politics
The Berlinale traditionally has a reputation for topical, progressive programming, but so far this year’s edition has seen several stars shy away from taking a stance on the big political issues of the day.
US actor Neil Patrick Harris, who stars in the film “Sunny Dancer” being shown in the festival’s Generation section, was asked on Friday if he considered his art to be political and if it could help “fight the rise of fascism.”
He replied that he was “interested in doing things that are apolitical” and which could help people find connection in our “strangely algorithmic and divided world.”
This year’s Honorary Golden Bear recipient, Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh, also demurred when asked to comment on US politics in a press conference on Friday, saying she “cannot presume to say I understand” the situation there.
This isn’t the first edition of the festival to run into controversy over the Gaza war.
In 2024 the festival’s documentary award went to “No Other Land,” a portrayal of the dispossession of Palestinian communities in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
German government officials criticized “one-sided” remarks about Gaza by the directors of that film and others at that year’s awards ceremony.
The war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Israel’s retaliation has left at least 71,000 people dead in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, whose figures the UN considers reliable.
