EU will push to unlock borders as coronavirus ravages travel and tourism

The EU executive will recommend Wednesday that border restrictions be gradually lifted and travel stalled by the coronavirus pandemic allowed to restart in order to revive tourism, a major industry across the 27-country bloc. Nearly all travel has been halted in Europe, a devastating blow for the tourism sector, which normally contributes almost one-tenth of the EU's economic output. Even within the Schengen area, comprising 26 EU and other European countries, and where frontiers are normally invisible, at least 17 countries have put emergency border controls in place to contain the virus. The executive EC will make a slew of non-binding recommendations, including that targeted restrictions replace a general ban on travel, and that internal border checks slowly be lifted as the health situation improves. The three Baltic states have already decided to reopen borders to each others' citizens from May 15, creating a "travel bubble" within the EU as pandemic curbs are eased. But the overall picture is not rosy, with even countries that are cautiously relaxing their strictest lockdown measures moving towards imposing a two-week quarantine period for travellers arriving from abroad. The Commission estimates some 6.4m jobs could be lost in tourism, which employed 12m people before the crisis.<br/>