European Commission recommends replacing blanket travel bans with targeted restrictions

European Commission presented (13-May-2020) "a package of guidelines and recommendations to help Member States gradually lift travel restrictions and allow tourism businesses to reopen, after months of lockdown, while respecting necessary health precautions". The commission recommended that as EU Member States "manage to reduce the circulation of the virus, blanket restrictions to free movement should be replaced by more targeted measures" and proposed a "phased and coordinated approach that starts by lifting restrictions between areas or Member States with sufficiently similar epidemiological situations". It also supported airlines and other travel operators offering vouchers to passengers as an "alternative to reimbursement for cancelled trips in the context of the current pandemic, which has also put heavy financial strains on travel operators", while stating the vouchers "should be protected against insolvency of the issuer, with a minimum validity period of 12 months, and be refundable after at most one year, if not redeemed". [more - original PR]