The Diplomat
The State Secretary for Global Spain, Manuel Muñiz, estimates that, if a mechanism to favour European mobility is achieved, tourism will recover 50% of the activity it had in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, next summer.
Muñiz made this forecast during his speech last Tuesday at the More Europe Forum, organised by Casa Mediterráneo at its headquarters in Alicante, in which he outlined the lines of the External Action Strategy 2021-2024, referred to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan drawn up by the Government and reviewed the measures to recover international mobility.
The State Secretary, who was introduced by the acting Director General of Casa Mediterráneo, Héctor Salvador, acknowledged the existence of “a socio-economic fracture and a deepening of economic and social gaps in most advanced economies, caused by digital transformation and globalisation, which have intensified with Covid-19”.
After referring to the measures taken by the Executive and the expectations that are opening up regarding the European funds that Spain will receive, he indicated that international mobility is the “point of contact between the health crisis and the economic crisis” and an issue that affects our country in a very particular way, given that our economy is highly dependent precisely on this mobility.
“We have established common homogeneous frameworks and now we are making progress within the EU and the OECD on a Digital Green Certificate, one of the major tools for restoring mobility this summer, which is expected to be ready by June”.
He explained that this Green Certificate will be a QR code that can be read on a mobile phone or on paper, and will contain information about the carrier in relation to whether they have been vaccinated, whether they have undergone a diagnostic test 72 hours before travelling, or whether they have overcome the disease and have immunity against covid.
Muñiz insisted that, if it can be in force in June, it will be vital for Spain, because it will be operational in the summer, which is the key time for tourism.
In any case, the State Secretary for Global Spain affirmed that the pace of vaccination in Spain and the funds that are expected to arrive from Europe allow us to be optimistic about the country’s economic recovery.
Muñiz also addressed the Foreign Action Strategy, recently approved by the Government, and stressed that “Spain wants a strong international order through effective multilateralism, the defence of an integrated, fair and equitable global economy – which advances, among other things, in the taxation of digital companies, competition policies that prevent monopolies, the fight against tax havens and sustainability – and the defence of human rights, democracy and feminism”.
All of this with a central role for the European Union: “We define ourselves,” he said, “as a profoundly pro-European country, which defends progress in integration in economic, defence, cooperation policies, etc., where Spain is active and proactive, as it has already been”.
Muñiz was very critical of the political climate of polarisation currently prevailing in the country, which, in his opinion, is eroding Spain’s image abroad.
