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Hotels, restaurants and beaches across Europe are being asked to enforce social distancing between guests, including booking slots at the pool and keeping 1.5m apart in the buffet queue, as the EU You have urged a gradual reopening of the bloc’s internal borders to salvage at least some of the summer holiday season.
With debate over rules on masks continuing in several European countries, the European commission called on Wednesday for a “careful” easing of restrictions and unveiled guidelines ranging from wearing face coverings on planes and trains to maintaining physical distancing on the beach and in hotels.
“This is not going to be a normal summer, not for any of us,” the European commission vice-president, Margrethe Vestager, said. She urged governments and businesses to follow Brussels ’recommendations so that“ we don’t have to face a summer stuck at home – or a completely lost summer for the European tourist industry ”.
Hotels are being asked to consider enabling guests to book slots at the pool, gym or restaurant. Large public spaces such as buffets should ensure guests not in the same family can remain at least 1.5 meters apart, while big events such as concerts are discouraged.
Guests should be advised on “respiratory etiquette”, namely sneezing or coughing into a tissue or a bent elbow, and issued with frequent reminders to wash their hands. Hotels would also be expected to keep address records to allow contact tracing in the event of an outbreak of coronavirus.
The non-binding guidelines are an attempt to ease a fall-off in travel that has emptied Europe’s beaches and squares of tourists since mid-March, threatening millions of jobs in a sector that accounts for 10% of the bloc’s economy.
“Today’s guidance can be the chance of a better season for the many Europeans whose livelihood depends on tourism and of course for those who would like to travel this summer,” Vestager said.
Travelers are being asked to wear face masks on all modes of transport and in airports and stations, and transport workers to wear masks and gloves. Buses, trains and ferries are encouraged to run with fewer people, although airlines will not be required to leave middle seats empty.
Germany said on Wednesday that it would start relaxing entry controls on its borders with EU members from this weekend, but Spain, one of the continent’s biggest tourist destinations, said it could wait until July.
Decisions on the reopening of borders are the responsibility of national governments, but the commission urged the 27 member states to coordinate lifting their restrictions in stages, starting with countries with low levels of coronavirus.
European governments are already pressing ahead with their own plans to reopen at different speeds depending on their national circumstances. The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will reopen borders to each others ’citizens, creating a“ travel bubble ”, from 15 May.
The EU’s external borders are to remain closed to non-essential travel until at least mid-June.
Germany’s interior minister, Horst Seehofer, said Berlin had “set the clear goal of free travel in Europe by mid-June”. Checks on the border with Luxembourg would be be dropped as early as Saturday, he said, and Berlin was consulting with Copenhagen on lifting all controls on the Danish border.
Germany also plans to open all border crossings with France, Switzerland and Austria, rather than selected ones as at present, with spot checks replacing systematic controls.
Earlier, Vienna said it was opening its borders with Germany and working on staggered reopenings with Switzerland, Liechtenstein and some eastern European countries.
Spain will however impose a two-week quarantine on all travelers arriving from abroad from Friday, and two foreign ministry sources told Reuters that Madrid aimed to keep its borders closed to most travelers from abroad until July.
The head of Spain’s center for health emergencies, Fernando Simón, has recommended the wearing of masks in all public spaces, amid reports that the government is considering making their use compulsory. At present masks are mandatory only on public transport. They have been handed out at train and metro stations.
Simón said the best measure to control the virus was “keeping the two-meter distance”, but added that masks “can be really helpful when it comes to controlling the epidemic”.
In Germany, face masks are obligatory on public transport and, in most regions, inside shops, but increasing numbers of people are taking legal action arguing that masks hinder personal expression and are not proven to be an effective tool against curbing the virus.
Masks are also mandatory on public transport in France, and most stores prefer shoppers to wear them. The Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, has again asked the government if she can reopen the city’s parks and gardens and said she would make it mandatory to wear a mask in them if permission is granted.
The Belgian government said schools, museums and hairdressers would be allowed to start reopening under strict distancing and hygiene conditions from May 18. Marriages and funerals will be allowed to go ahead with no more than 30 guests, and street markets may start trading again with a maximum of 50 traders, who must wear masks.
Russia, Europe’s new coronavirus hotspot, again reported more than 10,000 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday. The health minister, Mikhail Murashko, said more than 100,000 patients had been hospitalized.
Fears are growing of a second wave in China, with the north-eastern city of Jilin put in partial lockdown and Wuhan, where the virus first appeared last year, preparing to test its entire population after clusters of new cases.
The coronavirus has infected 4.3 million people worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and killed more than 293,000.
With reporting from Sam Jones in Madrid and Kate Connolly in Berlin
