Thousands Of Algerians Are Awaiting A Decision From Brussels This Week

The European Commission is presenting recommendations this week regarding the union’s vision on the issue of opening the internal and external borders of the EU, with the start of the European tourism season, which is expected to start at the beginning of July, with the presence of many Algerians who are stranded in Europe and are awaiting the EU decision impatiently.

In this regard, the foreign ministers of the European Union’s member states met and discussed, via video conference, the issue of opening the borders of the “Schengen” space, at a meeting held last Thursday.

The foreign ministers of the European Union decided to open the internal borders between the member states in the “Schengen” space, before the start of the new tourist season in Europe, which is expected in the coming July, for fear of harming the economies of their exhausted countries from the repercussions of the quarantine that extended for more than two months.

The French daily “Le Figaro” quoted the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, as saying, “If the control of the internal borders of the Schengen space countries is lifted at the end of this month, we can go to open the external borders gradually starting from July,1”.

Brussels fears that coordination between the member states of the union will be lost regarding the opening of internal borders of the Schengen space, as some see the need to open the borders and some others reserve this decision for fear of the pandemic spread, which was behind the call of some to maintain coordination between the countries of the European Union, based on taking into consideration the development of efforts to combat the emerging COVID19.

The European parties did not reach a unified position in this regard. Rather, the prevailing opinion goes to the option of selective opening based on the health status of each country, meaning that borders are not opened with countries that have been unable to stem the viral pandemic.

Brussels is seeking to draw up a list of countries that have not yet been able to besiege the viral pandemic so that it can deal with it in the issue of opening borders, in which it has not yet been finally decided.

Thousands of Algerians are stranded in the European Union countries, in addition to those who want to spend their summer vacation from the Algerian community in Europe, in Algeria, and those who want to move to the old continent to spend a vacation there or to visit relatives.