Spain PM confident of agreement on opening land border in early July

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has said he hopes “without a doubt” to reach an agreement to open its land borders with Portugal, a country led by his “friend”, António Costa, in early July.

“What we will do is reach agreements,” Sanchez said at a news conference on Sunday evening. “Logically, with a good neighbour like Portugal, without a doubt. And furthermore, with my friend, Prime Minister Costa, with even more certainty.”

The Spanish leader said that his country must provide a “safe” response to the millions of tourists who will visit the country this year, and argued that the timetable for opening the borders should be coordinated within the European Union.

He recalled that from July 1 Spain will be open to foreign tourists, which is why it is “essential to have harmonised security protocols,” even though “each country is free to decide when it will open the borders.”

“We have considered that the reasonable moment to guarantee this health security to all tourists […] will be in early July,” Sánchez said.

Spain and Italy last week asked the European Commission to ensure that the lifting of restrictions at EU borders is done in a coordinated and non-discriminatory way between all member states, according to “common, clear and transparent” epidemiological criteria.

Portugal’s prime minister, António Costa, last Thursday played down “some unilateral announcements” by the Spanish government, which have already been denied, on the reopening of their shared border, considering that “everything is cleared up” and that “normality is restored.”

The Spanish government had clarified on the same day that the opening of its borders to “safe international travel” will take place from July 1 and not June 22, as its minister of tourism had said that morning – a change of position that came after Portugal’s government sought “clarifications” and expressed “surprised” at the June date.

“It happens, in all governments, that there are sometimes less coordinated initiatives, but I think that everything is clarified,” said Costa. “What we had jointly agreed is what we will jointly maintain: on July 1 they can reopen the borders.”

The land borders between Portugal and Spain have been closed to the movement of people since 16 March, after the two countries reached an agreement to only allow the passage of goods and cross-border workers, as part of the measures approved to combat the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has already claimed 400,000 lives and infected more than 6.9 million people in 196 countries and territories.

After Europe succeeded China as the centre of the pandemic in February, the American continent has become the continent with the most confirmed cases, although with fewer deaths