Spain will consider a “green corridor” for vaccinated British tourists if there is no EU agreement on vaccination passports, the country’s tourism minister has said, as the European commission prepared to table a proposal for leaders this month.
Fernando Valdés said his government would seek to find agreement on a common system among the 27 member states to allow tourism to restart, but Madrid would probably open bilateral talks with non-EU countries if that failed.
“Right now we have discussions with our colleagues in the UK,” Valdés told Bloomberg TV. “For us the British market is our main market. But obviously since we are a member of the European Union, the solutions have first to be part of the discussions in the EU.
“And obviously if that cannot be reached we will be thinking of other corridors like green corridors with third countries that can help us restart tourism flows.”
British tourists spent around £18bn a year in Spain in 2019, making it the most popular holiday destination for UK travellers, but numbers were down by more than 80% in the summer of 2020.
Valdés’s comments came as the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said she intended to publish draft legislation on 17 March over a “pass” that vaccinated EU citizens could use to travel for work or tourism. Leaders will discuss the issue at a summit eight days later.
“The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the EU or abroad – for work or tourism,” Von der Leyen had told a meeting of German conservative politicians on Monday.
She later tweeted: “The aim is to provide: proof that a person has been vaccinated; results of tests for those who couldn’t get a vaccine yet; info on Covid-19 recovery. It will respect data protection, security & privacy.”
The move was welcomed by Spain, Portugal and Greece, and a spokesperson for Boris Johnson said the UK would be interested in discussing the concept with Brussels. The prime minister has said non-essential international travel could be permitted from 17 May if the infection rates continue to fall.
But the proposal for what Von der Leyen described as a “digital green pass” was described as “confusing” by Belgian’s deputy prime minister, who insisted that free movement was a right for all EU citizens.
Sophie Wilmès, who also acts as Belgium’s foreign minister, tweeted: “The idea of a standardised European system that allows each individual to gather pieces of information about one’s vaccination, Covid tests, etc, on a single digital document (certificate) is a good one.
“However, in Mrs Von der Leyen’s proposal, the notion of a ‘pass’ is confusing in relation to the objective that this certificate should pursue. For Belgium, there is no question of linking vaccination to the freedom of movement around Europe. Respect for the principle of non-discrimination is more fundamental than ever since vaccination is not compulsory and access to the vaccine is not yet generalised.”
Portugal’s economy minister, Pedro Siza Vieira, said the commission should be clear about the importance of the sector to many member states.
He said: “Tourism is very significant from the point of view of the economy, but also employment across the EU. At the same time, it has been the industry which is most impacted by the restrictions we have put down on mobility and face-to-face businesses.”
The Greek government, whose economy is heavily dependent on the tourist industry, has been championing the rollout of a vaccination passport for months, and is at an advanced stage in its talks with the UK government over a bilateral arrangement for the summer.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We’ve said we are looking at the issue of vaccine passports. As you can expect, the Department for Transport will work and do speak to countries across the world in terms of how they may look to introduce passports. But I can’t pre-empt the outcome of that review.”
