French warned to avoid travelling to Spain and Portugal this summer

Latest: Coronavirus in Spain figures (16 July)

The French Secretary of State in charge of European Affairs, Clément Beaune, said he was alarmed by the health situation in the Iberian Peninsula during an interview with France 2 TV on Thursday morning, due to the sharp rise in Covid cases, increasingly the delta variant, and ‘in particular in Catalonia’.

Beaune said he had ‘cautionary advice’ to send to the French people before they go on vacation. ‘If you’re not already booked, avoid Spain and Portugal,’ he warned.

The French government’s junior European affairs minister continued: ‘It is better to stay in France or go to other countries.’ With regards Portugal, he said that ‘fortunately, [they are] taking measures’, noting that the Portuguese authorities decided at the very beginning of July to re-establish a curfew in 45 towns.

Beaune said France had ‘not ruled out’ imposing extra travel restrictions on countries that have rising cases of Covid caused by the delta variant of the virus.

‘We will decide in the next few days but we could take reinforced measures,’ he said.

The UK was not mentioned, but French government spokesman Gabriel Attal had also said in his weekly press conference on Wednesday that Spain, Portugal and the UK were concerning the French government.

At present all EU and Schengen zone countries are on France’s green list, meaning fully vaccinated citizens can travel without tests or quarantine – although a health declaration form is required. Unvaccinated people need a negative Covid test, but don’t need an essential reason to travel and are not required to quarantine.

#Frontières | « Nous avons été clairs avec nos partenaires 🇪🇺 : certains pays ont déjà renforcé leurs dispositifs de contrôle à l’entrée. Surtout, il faut que les vaccins reconnus soient limités à ceux autorisés par l’agence 🇪🇺 ⁦@EMA_News⁩. » @Caroline_Roux ⁦⁦⁩ pic.twitter.com/3NScqcGFBn
— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) July 8, 2021