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Italy eyes new rules for EU, UK, Israel arrivals mid-May

Italy is hoping to drop the quarantine requirement for visitors from the rest of the European Union, Britain and Israel by mid-May, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said on Saturday.

Published: 9 May 2021 14:19 CEST

Italy eyes new rules for EU, UK, Israel arrivals mid-May

Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

“The aim is to reopen to visitors from foreign countries which have reached a high level of vaccinations, loosening some measures as early as mid-May,” he said after talks with Health Minister Roberto Speranza.

READ MORE: What will Italy’s coronavirus rules be for summer 2021?

“We are working to overcome the ‘mini quarantine’ for those who come from European countries, the United Kingdom and Israel, if they have a negative test, proof of vaccination or have recovered from coronavirus in the last six months.”

The current rules on EU arrivals expire on May 15th.

The UK has placed Italy on its ‘amber’ travel list, which does not prohibit travel but means that people will have to quarantine and test upon return to the UK.

Di Maio said Italy would also be working to increase the number of “Covid-free” flights to and from the United States, and is looking at putting an end to the quarantine requirement for US travellers from June.

He highlighted the importance of getting the EU’s planned “Green Pass” up and running, which would allow travel within the bloc to those with immunity, vaccinations or a negative coronavirus test.

READ ALSO: ‘Green pass’: How to get Italy’s coronavirus immunity card for travel

Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio. Photo by JOHANNA GERON / POOL / AFP

For now, the Italian government says it will launch its own version of the travel pass in May, though few details about the scheme have yet been published.

Italy began a cautious reopening on April 26th after months of coronavirus restrictions, with bars and restaurants permitted to serve customers outdoors.

Italy recorded another 10,000 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday and 224 deaths, taking the total to more than 122,000 – the highest rate in the EU.

“I, like I think most Italians, want to reopen, I want people to go back out to work, to have fun, to be together,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi told reporters Saturday after an EU summit in Portugal.

“But… we have to do it safely, that is, calculating the risk that we run.”

Italy had been the world’s fifth-most visited destination, but visitor numbers collapsed by more than 60 percent from 2019 to 2020.

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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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