Schengen Borders Will Stay Closed Until September?

There is chatter coming from Europe by the president of France, Mr. Macron, and President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, that the block's borders will stay closed until September if not later.

Mr. Macron had told on Friday that Schengen countries should keep the outside border closed until September while the head of the EU advised against anyone making summer travel plans at the moment (even within the block).

Schengen borderless travel area consists of 22 European member states (five don't participate of which four are obliged to join) plus Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

Will travel to the borders of the Schengen area be limited until September, due to the global coronavirus crisis? This is a hypothesis that Emmanuel Macron addressed, this Friday morning, during a videoconference with the social partners.

One of them, in fact, told BFMTV that the French president had announced that the countries of the Schengen zone were thinking of leaving the borders of space closed at least until September. It is a reflection carried out on the basis of the evolution of the pandemic in the world.

Emmanuel Macron notably cited the example of the United States, where the coronavirus crisis is delayed by several weeks and which will therefore reach its peak later. But also that of Africa, where the situation is developing differently. In Asia, a second peak may occur.

I have already written a few times that 2020 is a lost cause when it comes to international travel due to travel restrictions and bans that will take some time to be withdrawn when the Covid-19 peak has passed.

I would imagine that travel within countries and Schengen will restart earlier. It remains to be seen whether I need to skip my usual late June Mykonos trip and return in 2021.