EU economic crisis compounded by uncertainty
Jerome Hughes
Press TV, Brussels
The European Central Bank warns that reopening businesses in the European Union doesn’t guarantee an economic rebound in the 27-country bloc. EU legislators warn that the mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic is putting millions of jobs in the bloc’s tourism sector at risk.
As EU leaders continue to try and grapple with COVID-19, hundreds of visitor hotspots across the bloc are more like ghost towns due to ongoing travel restrictions. The European Parliament has approved the EU Digital Travel Certificate. It is supposed to be operational by the 1st of July. Seven EU nations are already using it but some countries say they won't until the middle of July.
The new travel cert will show if someone has been vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 or has had a negative test. A large cohort of EU lawmakers are furious the tests will not be free. They claim it is a mechanism to effectively force citizens to get vaccinated.
People struggling financially who don't want or don't have access to the jab will not be able to travel, legislators point out. Tests could also be very costly for cross-border workers. This is all very discriminatory, legislators say.
Free movement of people within the 27-nation EU is supposed to be a fundamental right. The lack of travel is having a devastating economic impact.
Official data shows the youth unemployment rate in the EU is double that of the general population, and that might be an underestimation.
The EU travel certificate is being hailed as a tool to jump-start the bloc's economy but many lawmakers have data protection concerns.
Amid growing fears over people's jobs, the European Central Bank has again appealed to EU leaders not to dither over the deployment of COVID-19 recovery funding.
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