Original title: Italy threatens to leave the EU if “tourist corridors” are made, that will damage the state!
On 15.05.2020, the portal televizijastar.com published an article titled Italy threatens to leave the EU if “tourist corridors” are made, that will damage the state!
The portal used the statement of the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte at his press conference on 13.05.2020 for the purposes of the article.
The article says that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte criticized the European Union’s plan for the tourist season, which provides for so-called “green corridors” between EU countries, and threatened that Italy could leave the EU because of such strategy. “Tourism cannot be conditioned by bilateral agreements. We will not allow that. Or we will leave the European Union.”
Namely, at the press conference on 13.05.2020, the Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte stated that they will not accept bilateral agreements within the European Union that can create privileged tourist channels. He said “EU member states must not build de facto tourism agreements with each other during the coronavirus crisis, warning that such a move could destroy the common economic market.” As a result, Prime Minister Conte believes it would leave them out of the European Union, something they will never allow.
The European Commission’s tourism strategy proposes a phased and coordinated approach that begins by lifting restrictions between areas or Member States with sufficiently similar epidemiological situations. In the case of Italy as the most affected European country by the coronavirus, it is still unknow when will travelling be allowed. Therefore, the tourism strategy is not favorable for the Italian Prime Minister, because Italy is a country in which tourism participates with 13% of GDP. The statement of the Italian Prime Minister is in that context, which is why they do not agree and would not allow it.
In no way does this mean that Italy has threatened to leave the EU. The European Commission is not a legislative body, and its strategy for a package of tourism measures is not in force. The decision is made by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.
Star TV is distorting a statement by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, which aims to show the alleged dissatisfaction in the EU. The disagreement of a country with the proposed measures does not mean a reason to leave the EU, much less that the measures will not fit the interests of all member states. According to the abovementioned, the F2N2 team evaluates this article as a spin, with an anti-EU narrative.
