Portugal’s presidency of the Council of the EU urges member states to ‘act without delay’ to support European tourism

Portugal’s presidency of the Council of the European Union has urged member States and community institutions to “act without delay” to support European tourism so that it can recover from the crisis. It is particularly asking for the UE to move on the creation of ‘digital free transit’ (the so-called vaccine passports, which are not in fact focused only on vaccines: they will also show whether carriers have recently recovered from Covid-19, or whether they have had a negative test). Said secretary of state for European Affairs Ana Zacarias the urgency is in providing “necessary financial support to alleviate the lack of liquidity of many touristic businesses in order to avoid large job losses, and to help the sector out of recession”.