The Members of the European Parliament want the EU executive bodies to establish a new strategy to make travel and tourism cleaner, safer, and more eco-friendly in order to help the sector’s recovery after the pandemic.

Previously, in a meeting held on February 25, the EU Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee voted the draft resolution regarding the EU strategy for sustainable tourism, with 47 votes in favor and only two against, urging the EU Member States to include the sector in their recovery plans.

A report regarding this issue will be put up for a vote at the Parliament on March 25, 2021, StudyinPoland.Info reports.

In a press release, the European Parliament Members assert that the pandemic has changed people’s preferences and has brought them closer to nature. Therefore, the Parliament calls for a roadmap that would allow an eco-friendlier way of tourism and which would help to reduce the environmental footprint.

The report also includes other proposals as following:

• An EU hygiene certification seal that would certify Coronavirus prevention standards and help to restore consumers’ trust in tourism
• A new EU agency for tourism

The report by the European Parliament emphasizes that the travel restrictions imposed due to the Coronavirus have weakened the tourism sector, which employs around 27 million people and constitutes about ten percent of the European Union’s gross domestic products.

“With summer just around the corner, we want to avoid past errors and put in place coordinated, and uniform EU measures, such as a protocol of tests before departure, a certificate of vaccination, a sanitary seal, to facilitate travel, with no costs for citizens,“  the member of the European Parliament Cláudia Monteiro de Aguiar said.

The European Parliament report asserts that it is essential to allocate short-term financial support for the travel sector to survive, encouraging EU countries to involve tourism in the recovery plans in relation to COVID-19.

The report also calls for investments in the digitalization and modernization of the travel and tourism sector, as well as for the countries to consider reducing their VAT rates in the sector for the time being.

Further, it requires a common vaccination certificate to be adopted by the Member States, which could replace the PCR tests and self-isolation requirements as soon as vaccines are accessible for everyone and there is enough proof that the virus cannot be transmitted by those already vaccinated.

The European Union Commission has already announced its proposal for a Digital Green Certificate to be created and used by the Member States in a bid to make it possible for those vaccinated to travel restriction-free.

It was pointed out that the certificates will include a QR code, and they will prove three different situations of the COVID-19:

–          Prove that the holder has been vaccinated

–          Test results (NAAT/RT-PCR test or a rapid antigen test)

–          Prove that the holder has recovered from COVID-19

Different businesses and workers of the tourism sector already benefit from the measures taken by the EU as a response to the COVID-19 situation, including fiscal relief, easement of state aid rules, and liquidity support.