Brussels asked EU governments to reboot free travel from Monday — but that doesn’t mean Schengen is fully revived.
The bloc’s free-travel zone came to a screeching halt in March when countries chaotically imposed border restrictions to lock out the coronavirus. The European Commission wanted the reopening to be a much more orderly affair, but that’s not happening.
Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson on Thursday told capitals they must drop Europe’s internal-border restrictions to be ready to figure out a joint approach to restarting travel from outside the bloc, targeted for July 1. Brussels is desperate to avoid a messy global opening that results in a new round of border closures.
Johansson said that the coronavirus has retreated in Europe and that the EU’s own health agency advised that border restrictions inside the EU and the Schengen area are “not an effective way to deal with the pandemic right now.”
But she admitted that member countries may have trouble meeting the Monday deadline.
Despite prodding from Brussels, POLITICO’s guide shows a patchwork of policies across the bloc.
Austria | Belgium | Bulgaria | Croatia | Cyprus | Czech Republic | Denmark | Estonia | Finland | France | Germany | Greece | Hungary | Iceland | Ireland | Italy | Latvia | Liechtenstein | Lithuania | Luxembourg | Malta | Netherlands | Norway | Poland | Portugal | Romania | Slovakia | Slovenia | Spain | Sweden | Switzerland | United Kingdom
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