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Could PCR tests for travel to Spain and EU be free this summer?

Two Spanish regions and one of the leading proponents of the European Parliament's push for Covid passports are calling for the PCR tests needed for travel to Spain to be made free for EU tourists this summer.

Published: 23 April 2021 13:55 CEST
Could PCR tests for travel to Spain and EU be free this summer?
Photo: Desiree Martin/AFP

Europeans who are not vaccinated should have access to free PCR tests for travel, according to Juan Fernando López Aguilar, the Spanish MEP who’s leading the European Parliament’s negotiations for the launch of the Digital Green Certificates, or Covid passports.

The EU hopes to introduce their so-called Digital Green Certificates in June, just in time for the summer season. According to the European Commission website, they will have information on whether a traveller has been vaccinated or not, if they have received a negative test result or if they have recovered from Covid-19.

Those Europeans who are not vaccinated or who have not had Covid, will however still have to present a negative PCR test in order to travel between EU countries, and Aguilar is arguing that these must be free.

“We are currently negotiating the measures, some of which I think we can find a broad consensus for,” Aguilar told Spanish newspaper El Confidencial. 

“The first point we’ll tackle is making PCRs free of charge.

“We are against the economic discrimination PCRs bring.

“They are very expensive, prohibitively so for interns or students. PCRs have to be free of charge.

“Without freedom of movement there will be no social and economic recovery”, Aguilar concluded, while admitting that getting all EU countries to agree with the proposal will not be easy.

According to Aguilar, the privacy of citizens’ data and free PCR tests were the two most important issues being discussed during the implementation of these new certificates. 

Spain’s Valencia and Balearic regions also call for free PCR tests

The president of the Generalitat of Valencia, Ximo Puig, and the president of the Balearic Islands, Francina Armengol, agree with Aguilar’s stance and have both demanded that the European Union finance free PCR for EU citizens who want to travel this summer so that they do not become a “limitation” due to their high prices.

“If vaccines are free, within the European social space, PCRs should be too”, pointed out Puig, with the aim of “guaranteeing the possibilities” for all people and facilitating mobility “in complete safety”.

“They must be free and financed with European funds, so that citizens can travel to another country,” Puig continued.

Unlike the free vaccines PCRs currently cost about €100 in private laboratories in Spain, and on popular dates when many people travel, such as last Christmas, they rose to around €150 or €160 .

The EU is currently in discussions as to the final format of this certificate, but the European Parliament has already decided that they want to change its name to “anticovid certificate” instead of Digital Green Certificate, so that it is more understandable for citizens, said Aguilar.

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BREXIT

OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

The EU has drawn up plans to make it easier for non-EU citizens to gain longterm EU residency so they can move more easily around the bloc, but Italy-based citizens' rights campaigner Clarissa Killwick says Brits who moved to the EU before Brexit are already losing out.

Published: 8 December 2023 14:34 CET
OPINION: Pre-Brexit Brits in Europe should be given EU long-term residency

With all the talk about the EU long-term residency permit and the proposed improvements there is no mention that UK citizens who are Withdrawal Agreement “beneficiaries” are currently being left out in the cold.

The European Commission has stated that we can hold multiple statuses including the EU long-term permit (Under a little-known EU law, third-country nationals can in theory acquire EU-wide long-term resident status if they have lived ‘legally’ in an EU country for at least five years) but in reality it is just not happening.

This effectively leaves Brits locked into their host countries while other third country nationals can enjoy some mobility rights. As yet, in Italy, it is literally a question of the computer saying no if someone tries to apply.

The lack of access to the EU long-term permit to pre-Brexit Brits is an EU-wide issue and has been flagged up to the European Commission but progress is very slow.

READ ALSO: EU government settle on rules for how non-EU citizens could move around Europe

My guess is that few UK nationals who already have permanent residency status under the Withdrawal Agreement are even aware of the extra mobility rights they could have with the EU long-term residency permit – or do not even realise they are two different things.

Perhaps there won’t be very large numbers clamouring for it but it is nothing short of discrimination not to make it accessible to British people who’ve built their lives in the EU.

They may have lost their status as EU citizens but nothing has changed concerning the contributions they make, both economically and socially.

An example of how Withdrawal Agreement Brits in Italy are losing out

My son, who has lived almost his whole life here, wanted to study in the Netherlands to improve his employment prospects.

Dutch universities grant home fees rather than international fees to holders of an EU long-term permit. The difference in fees for a Master’s, for example, is an eye-watering €18,000. He went through the application process, collecting the requisite documents, making the payments and waited many months for an appointment at the “questura”, (local immigration office).

On the day, it took some persuading before they agreed he should be able to apply but then the whole thing was stymied because the national computer system would not accept a UK national. I am in no doubt, incidentally, that had he been successful he would have had to hand in his WA  “carta di soggiorno”.

This was back in February 2022 and nothing has budged since then. In the meantime, it is a question of pay up or give up for any students in the same boat as my son. There is, in fact, a very high take up of the EU long-term permit in Italy so my son’s non-EU contemporaries do not face this barrier.

Long-term permit: The EU’s plan to make freedom of movement easier for non- EU nationals 

Completing his studies was stalled by a year until finally his Italian citizenship came through after waiting over 5 years.  I also meet working adults in Italy with the EU long-term permit who use it for work purposes, such as in Belgium and Germany, and for family reunification.  

Withdrawal agreement card should double up as EU long-term residency permit

A statement that Withdrawal Agreement beneficiaries should be able to hold multiple statuses is not that easy to find. You have to scroll quite far down the page on the European Commission’s website to find a link to an explanatory document. It has been languishing there since March 2022 but so far not proved very useful.

It has been pointed out to the Commission that the document needs to be multilingual not just in English and “branded” as an official communication from the Commission so it can be used as a stand-alone. But having an official document you can wave at the immigration authorities is going to get you nowhere if Member State governments haven’t acknowledged that WA beneficiaries can hold multiple statuses and issue clear guidance and make sure systems are modified accordingly.

I can appreciate this is no mean feat in countries where they do not usually allow multiple statuses or, even if they do, issue more than one residency card. Of course, other statuses we should be able to hold are not confined to EU long-term residency, they should include the EU Blue Card, dual nationality, family member of an EU citizen…

Personally, I do think people should be up in arms about this. The UK and EU negotiated an agreement which not only removed our freedom of movement as EU citizens, it also failed to automatically give us equal mobility rights to other third country nationals. We are now neither one thing nor the other.

It would seem the only favour the Withdrawal Agreement did us was we didn’t have to go out and come back in again! Brits who follow us, fortunate enough to get a visa, may well pip us at the post being able to apply for EU long-term residency as clearly defined non-EU citizens.

I have been bringing this issue to the attention of the embassy in Rome, FCDO and the European Commission for three years now. I hope we will see some movement soon.

Finally, there should be no dragging of heels assuming we will all take citizenship of our host countries. Actually, we shouldn’t have to, my son was fortunate, even though it took a long time. Others may not meet the requirements or wish to give up their UK citizenship in countries which do not permit dual nationality.  

Bureaucratic challenges may seem almost insurmountable but why not simply allow our Withdrawal Agreement permanent card to double up as the EU long-term residency permit.

Clarissa Killwick,

Since 2016, Clarissa has been a citizens’ rights campaigner and advocate with the pan-European group, Brexpats – Hear Our Voice.
She is co-founder and co-admin of the FB group in Italy, Beyond Brexit – UK citizens in Italy.

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