The Diplomat
French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, recommended yesterday that his country’s citizens avoid travel to Spain and Portugal because of new outbreaks of COVID-19. This recommendation came a day before the arrival in Madrid of the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, to meet his Spanish counterpart, Arancha González Laya.
Speaking to France 2 yesterday, Clément Beaune warned that the Delta variant of the coronavirus is “everywhere”, revealing that “in general, the pandemic is not over”. For that reason, he explained, the French government is “particularly monitoring the situation in countries where the outbreak is very fast, Portugal and Spain, Catalonia in particular, where many French people go on vacation”.
“Those who have not yet booked their vacations, avoid Spain and Portugal in their destinations,” he continued. “It is better to stay in France or go to other countries,” added Beaune, who estimated that some countries have been able to “open the floodgates too wide” to benefit from a tourist summer beneficial to economic activity. However, government spokesman Gabriel Attal later told French media that Paris has not issued any “specific recommendations” on Spain or Portugal and that the country’s citizens should be “very vigilant wherever they go on vacation”. For his part, the Spanish ambassador in Paris, José Manuel Albares, encouraged “all the French who wish to travel to Spain this summer” in declarations to a French television channel.
These statements come a day after the official visit to Madrid of Le Drian, who will discuss today with González Laya the follow-up of the bilateral commitments made at the 26th Franco-Spanish summit of March 15, 2021, in particular the next steps of the Franco-Spanish cross-border strategy and the projects of the bilateral cooperation treaty decided at this summit, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported.
These consultations are part of the coordination between France and Spain on European and international matters, in view of the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2022. The ministers will discuss several topical European issues, in particular migration issues, the implementation of recovery plans, the management of the pandemic and relations with the United Kingdom. They will also examine major international issues in which France and Spain share common interests, such as the situation in the Sahel, support for the political transition in Libya, the situation in Lebanon, the fight against piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, political and trade relations with Latin America and “relations with the Maghreb countries, which are of strategic importance for our two countries,” the Quai d’Orsay added.
During the trip, Le Drian will visit the European Union Satellite Center (SatCen), based in Torrejón de Ardoz, and the Casa de Velázquez. Inaugurated in 1928 on land ceded to France by Spain, Casa de Velázquez’s mission is to develop creation and academic research activities related to the arts, languages and societies of Iberian, Latin American and Maghreb countries, and hosts both artists and social science researchers. Along with the Villa Medici in Rome, the Villa Kujoyama in Tokyo and the Villa Albertine in the United States, the Casa de Velazquez is part of the network of major French cultural residences abroad.
