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Spain to lift travel ban for UK arrivals on March 30th

The Spanish government on Tuesday announced it will lift entry restrictions for arrivals from the UK after a three-month travel ban was imposed to control the spread of new strains of the coronavirus.

Published: 23 March 2021 15:03 CET

Spain to lift travel ban for UK arrivals on March 30th

Photo: Desiree Martin/AFP

Spain’s Council of Ministers on Tuesday decided to lift a travel ban on arrivals by air and sea from the United Kingdom which has been in place since December 22nd 2020.

The Spanish government had extended this travel ban from the UK on six occasions over the course of the last three months.

Only Spanish residents and Spanish/Andorran nationals were allowed in from the UK, which excludes the majority of British second home owners in Spain who own property here but aren’t registered residents.

The latest travel ban renewal for flight and ferries from the UK was introduced on March 9th and is now due to expire on March 30th.

Restrictions on arrivals from Brazil and South Africa to prevent the spread of new coronavirus strains will be extended until April 13th but “not those with Britain” as the country’s vaccination campaign is very advanced, Spanish government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said on Tuesday.

The good news comes just hours after the British government announced that as part of its new Covid regulations, people in the UK will be allowed to travel abroad to buy, rent, let out or sell a second home from March 29th.

The UK government’s new “reasonable excuses for travel” abroad include visiting an estate agent, a developer sales office or show home, as well as viewing residential homes to rent or buy, or preparing a property to move into.

However, holidays abroad are still not allowed by Boris Johnson’s government, meaning that anyone caught breaking the rules on travel by going on holiday to Spain or elsewhere faces a fine of up to £5,000 (€5,800).

UK authorities will need to clarify whether flying abroad to check up on a property qualifies as a “reasonable excuse”, as many Brits have left their Spanish homes unattended for months.

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German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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