The Diplomat
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, yesterday called on the European Commission to speed up the vaccination certificate to recover mobility and to launch an “ambitious” programme for the recovery of EU tourism under the new EU budget framework.
During her participation in the virtual high-level meeting of EU tourism ministers, Maroto urged the European Commission to speed up the development of digital health information tools between states, such as the vaccination certificate, to facilitate mobility interrupted by the pandemic and ensure the resumption of safe travel, a proposal that the tourism ministers of Spain, Austria, Bulgaria, Greece, Malta and Slovakia have defended in a joint declaration sent to the Commission yesterday.
“Certificates are a useful and effective tool for resuming mobility in a safe way”, said the minister, who called for “redoubled efforts to ensure better coordination and communication of travel-related measures at EU level in order to avoid discriminatory measures between citizens and to restore confidence among travellers”. “It is important to have the tools ready to initiate mobility and put Europe back on the map as a safe travel destination as soon as the virus incidence data allows”, she added.
Reyes Maroto also asked the Commission to develop an “ambitious programme” for the recovery of EU tourism under the new budgetary framework, which will allow Europe to continue to be a reference point for tourism throughout the world, according to a press release from the Ministry.
Finally, the Minister of Tourism warned that the Regulation on the extension by categories of aid compatible with the internal market should be extended to reinforce the framework of state aid and favour aid schemes for the solvency of tourism companies that are going to take longer than other economic sectors to recover their activity.
Carolina Darias
The Minister of Health, Carolina Darias, yesterday took part in the second informal meeting of European Union health ministers, convened by the Portuguese Presidency this year.
During the meeting, Darias announced that, as of this week, the Government will include information on the COVID-19 vaccination process by “target groups” (elderly people and healthcare personnel and residents in long-term care centres) in the State Vaccination Register, and she specified that this information will also be shared with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
At this meeting, in which the vaccination plans of the Member States, the appearance of new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and detection strategies were discussed, the minister assured that the epidemiological situation in Spain is improving but that all administrations, starting with the government, remain on alert.
