 Good morning, dear colleagues. Welcome to the third and final day of our plenary this week. It's a great with its great happiness that I announced to you that we have a great program for today. I will start this session by announcing that the results of the voting on the amendments to opinions are known. The document was sent to you by email and is published on the members portal. The electronic voting on the final opinions starts now and will be open until 12 noon, Brussels time. The single voting link, similarly to our procedure yesterday, is available on the members portal inside the document that is called voting link for final opinions. For detailed step-by-step information on the voting procedure, please refer to the Practical Guide to Remote Voting for the Committee of Regions, which is also available on the members portal. So, it's 9.35 and we now start our debate on the recovery in the tourism, hotel and catering sector. A very important debate, timely, and of course, of great interest for most of us representing regions and cities of Europe. Dear Secretary of State, dear Member of the European Parliament, Montairo, dear President of Hotrek, welcome to the European Committee of the Regions. Today's debate is taking place as many regions, cities and villages all across Europe prepare to welcome tourists for the summer season. In normal times, tourism generates 10% of the EU's GDP and employs more than 23 million Europeans. Sanitary measures, closed borders, restrictions on the freedom of movement, unfortunately brought the tourism and hospitality sector to its knees. And this is the truth. Local and regional governments are already feeling the impact of the loss of income from tourism and hospitality. At the time, when our public services are already stretched to the limit, regions and cities cannot afford to lose another season. All levels, from EU to national, from European Union to European Union, to regional and local, must work together to save the sector. Dear colleagues, in these challenging times the European Union has come to the rescue. Cohesion policy has supported tourism with 10 billion euros invested over the past seven years. And during this health crisis, many European SMEs have been supported by temporary EU COVID-19 measures. But the most effective financial EU tool will be the Recovery and Resilience Facility, which must be planned and implemented between the national, regional and local levels. Local and regional authorities have competencies on tourism. If they are ignored, the sector will fail. But if we work together, we can build a resilient tourism sector that will go digital and will become sustainable. Dear colleagues, Europeans want and are ready to travel safely. We all need to help the vaccination campaigns. There is no doubt about this. Vaccinating protects ourselves and others. But it is how we will relaunch and reopen Europe. And as I said before, there is no place for vaccine nationalism. The European Union must leave no region, city or territory behind. It must show its true solidarity and values, ensuring a temporary waiver on patents of COVID-19 vaccines. Increasing vaccine protection to help every community in the world. Furthermore, the digital green certificate will get Europe moving again, provided it respects EU privacy and data protection. Europe's tourism sector will not recover if we don't have common European rules for safe travel. European tourism operators will also benefit if we have standardised rules. So, we clearly state in our resolution that we welcome the European Commission's proposal to create the new digital green certificate. We call on a dedicated directorate general for tourism, we call to draw up a new European Sustainable Tourism Framework, aligned with the European Green Deal and the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations. Tourism is part of our European way of life. It contributes to our common European identity. So, let's work together, dear colleagues, dear friends, for its recovery and for safely reopening the sector. This will help all of us benefit and regions, cities, the countries of the European Union will definitely profit and gain the most out of the European Union. We will definitely profit and gain the most out of the possibilities that tourism gives to every country, every city and region, from the local economy to new workplaces to development. So, we are here today to discuss these issues on how to reopen tourism safely the quickest possible. I welcome all of our guests, Rita Marques, the Secretary of State for Tourism, in Portugal, Jens Simmel Christensen, the President of the Hot Trek Association and of course a statement by the Member of the European Parliament, Claudia Monteiro de Anguillar. But, we are starting now with a video message by Elisabeth Köstinger, the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Regions and Tourism of Austria. Diities and economies, in particular our regions. As we know, the tourism sector is responsible for more than 10% of European Union's GDP and of some 12% of European total employment. The pandemic has hit tourism and our economies like a hurricane. Those regions with a high tourism intensity have therefore suffered the most and consequently need to redouble efforts to rebuild a resilient and sustainable tourism sector. As Minister responsible for both tourism and regions, I'm well aware of the independence of tourism and regional development and we have therefore created strong linkages between these two policy areas. For example, in promoting regional products from the gastronomy. So, how do we overcome the current crisis? In the short term, we have to create the conditions to enable secure and safe tourism during the upcoming summer season. As you know, Austria has been strongly pushing for a digital green certificate. We believe that it will be a viable tool to enable safe mobility and cross-border tourism. We also need to continue to support our tourism-related businesses and their employees in their rebuilding efforts until they can stand on their own feet. On the other hand, we need to set the stage for the medium and long-term development of the sector. This needs to be even more sustainable and more resilient than before and respond to the new and emerging trends and priorities. On the European level, we need to work together on the common tourism agenda. In Austria, we launched our national comeback process for tourism last week, where we held intensive discussions with industry stakeholders on the most pressing needs, challenges and opportunities for a restart of tourism. One of these discussions is dedicated to the role of tourism for the development of the regions. We will address the question on how to better integrate tourism into regional value chains, thus enhancing the role of tourism as a job and growth booster in the regions. The regions have an important part to play in the recovery process and the future design of tourism. Our objective is that tourism contributes to creating high-quality living regions, not only for our guests, but also for the local population and businesses. Above all, restarting tourism will need joint cooperation and a positive and productive approach among the tourism community, at large and all international, regional and local stakeholders. I therefore wanted to ask for your support in your efforts to restart tourism. It is highly appreciated, because all together we can become strong again. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. I would like now to welcome the Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Rita Marquez. Secretary of State, thank you for accepting our invitation. We are really glad to have you in our plenary debate for this very important subject. So the floor is yours now. Thank you so much. I hope you can hear me and see me well. So first of all, I would like to thank you so much for having me. I would like to thank the Committee of Regents Presidency for the very kind invitation and to be part of on this plenary and of course to have the opportunity to present and also discuss what we have been doing for the sector, for the tourism sector. You know, we are living a critical moment. This is the time to take decisive European actions towards this sector that gave so much to all of us and we have now the chance to act without any delay in order to provide the necessary financial support to alleviate the lack of liquidity of many tourism businesses and to prevent massive losses in the jobs and to help the sector come out of this recession. And that's pretty much our biggest priority in the short term. So we all know that reopening of the sector depends on the epidemiological situation across Europe. We also know that the vaccination rollout process is evolving across Europe. But we have the chance to give more to the sector. And so the Portuguese Presidency promoted on March the 1st an extraordinary formal meeting of Ministers of Tourism and that meeting was dedicated to a debate and to foster the work together for the reopening of the youth spring asymmetries and season. On this meeting we had the opportunity to have this great announcement from the Commission that it would adopt a legislative proposal on the Digital Green Certificate to facilitate the free movement of travels within the EU. And so we have been working very hard to have this ready by summer season. And at the same time we also have been working very hard to extend this coordinated approach to untravel restrictions not only in the EU but towards third countries including of course the UK. So honourable members of the committee within the EU tourism sector while the EU tourism sector is currently facing serious challenges the Presidency did not lose the grip on promoting a rising future for the sector in order to maintain Europe as a leading destination in the world. The Portuguese Presidency already resumed the debate on two of the three major key issues for the long-term strategy. On January we held an event where we debated on how the EU can promote a better training and education on the tourism sector. We all know that seizing the opportunity of having a specific tourism cluster on the pack for skills is big and we reached a common understanding that the skills are critical for this sector not only for the workforce but also on management and leadership levels. Also on March the Presidency hosted another meeting, another important meeting, the Director's General for Tourism, dedicated to innovation and digital and we had an expert event on big data management for tourism where it was very clear that some work has still to be done in this area namely by public authorities in the access to big data and how to make it available to the economic operators, special SMEs but also for the regions of course. And now the Presidency is working with all parties involved, member states, the European Parliament, the Commission, the private sector stakeholders to promote and support the transition of European tourism from a model focused on quantitative growth to a quality-based approach leading to a more sustainable development in the sector and also more jobs with quality. The ambitious vision will be part of the future European Agenda for Tourism 2030-2015 that has underpinned shared priorities, that has a roadmap towards a sustainable, innovative, resilient, social tourism ecosystem where the regional approach will play for sure a very important role. This is one of the key objectives of the Council conclusions on tourism that we are currently negotiating and discussing with all member states to be adopted in late May. So the Presidency is very much committed to working with all European institutions including of course the Committee of Regents and with all international organizations and tourism stakeholders under development of this shared agenda, a very ambitious agenda for the future of the sector. Again we are very honored that the Presidents of the Committee of Regents has accepted to take part in the discussion that will take part in May 14. This is the last event related with tourism from the Portuguese Presidency and this event will help us to prepare the ground for launching this agenda that I just mentioned and I would like very much to invite all the honorable members of this committee to attend, mainly in the workshop of green and territory where the Regents will have a special attention, will have a specific workshop on this matter. So thank you again for having me and I will be around to answer any questions that you might have. Thank you so much. Thank you very much Ms. Marquez. The floor now the member of the European Parliament Claudia Monteiro de Aguilar. Muito bom dia a todos. Comprimentar o senhor presidente e agradecer o convite para estar aqui neste vosso encontro, nesta vossa reunião para debater um setor importantíssimo para a economia dos vários países da união, mas um setor importantíssimo também para a Europa. A Europa o primeiro destino turístico do mundo recebeu o ano passado, em 2020, menos 70% de turistas internacionais em relação ao ano anterior. Aos dias de hoje sabemos que estão em risco entre 6 e 11 milhões de empregos. Quando falamos de turismo, falamos obviamente de um conjunto, uma cadeia de valor imensa, um conjunto de stakeholders que trabalham direta e indiretamente para o turismo. Falamos de empresas de autolaria, de restauração, do pequeno comércio, dos espaços culturais. Falamos de pequenas e médias empresas, mas acima de tudo estamos a falar de pessoas, estamos a falar de famílias. E nos últimos anos este setor foi efetivamente o que mais contribuiu para países como a Grécia, como Portugal, o meu país, como Espanha. Portanto, eu juro que estamos no momento certo de unir esforços, juntar esforços entre todos, todas as instituições para, neste momento de crise, apoiarmos claramente todas as regiões sem deixar nenhuma região para trás. Precisamos ter obviamente um olhar específico também para a outra periferia. Sabemos que as ilhas têm constrangimentos específicos nomeadamente da acessibilidade, têm economias mais frágeis e portanto é nosso de ver também olhar para estas regiões para a outra periferia, consagrando também um apoio específico que nós temos vindo a pedir no Parlamento Europeu e que pedimos também que todas as instituições europeias se juntem, se unam para efetivamente darmos aqui o apoio necessário. A retoma da economia europeia, a retoma da economia dos Estados membros das nossas regiões não se fará sem o turismo. E tem de haver a coragem política, a vontade política para lançar apoios financeiros, lançar um conjunto de um roadmap para apoiar do ponto de vista financeiro, mas também do ponto de vista da orientação, de como vamos fazer, como vão as regiões fazer esta dupla transição que sequer, uma transição digital e uma transição ambiental, mas que precisa de ser apoiada. O Parlamento Europeu aprovou, há pouco tempo, um relatório precisamente em chamar atenção para um conjunto de medidas que devem ser tidas em consideração, um caminho que deve ser traçado, trilhado com a Comissão Europeia, com o Parlamento, com o Conselho, mas também com o Comitê das Regiões, com o Comitê Ecnômica Social. Todos somos precisos para encontrarmos aqui estas ferramentas de apoio. Obviamente que temos de tornar o processo de vacinação o mais selo possível não, Neão. Esse é o fator crucial e chave neste momento, tratar da questão saúde dos cidadãos europeus em primeiro lugar, mas depois há todo um conjunto de medidas que devemos pensar, uma estratégia que deve ser bem definida, sem uma linha de financiamento, sem apoio direto ao turismo no quadro financeiro apeluri anual, é o next generation EU, nomeadamente nos planos de recuperação de cada um dos 27, que têm de ser incluídos projetos para o turismo. A Comissão vai lançar agora em maio um projeto, um guia para o turismo, um overview de 360 graus sobre todas as possibilidades de financiamento do setor, ou seja, não existe um programa único como nós, Parlamento, queríamos, mas há um conjunto de possibilidades de financiamento que nós temos de fazer chegar aos Estados Membros e às Regiões para que criem projetos para alavancar este setor. É pedido também que os Estados Membros analisem-se possível a redução das taxas divas sobre os serviços de viagens e turismo, mas há um conjunto de medidas que a nível europeu podemos fazer. Por isso também no Parlamento Europeu pedimos que seja criada uma agência europeia para o turismo, que se financiem também questões de marcas, da marca Europa para o turismo, que se apoie, como foi dito aqui anteriormente, as novas skills, a formação para que todos os envolvidos no setor tenham esta formação e possam estar capacitados para a nova transformação digital que está a acontecer, sem margem de dúvidas, mas também há de facto um conjunto de medidas que nós estamos preparados, queremos apoiar o setor e queremos olhar para as Regiões dando-lhes um tratamento diferenciado, porque temos de tratar diferente aquilo que é diferente. O Parlamento Europeu está motivado e empenhado em fazer todo este apoio, contamos com comitê das Regiões para, junto da Comissão Europeia, traçarmos melhores planos, melhores ferramentas para apoiar nesta recuperação económica que necessita ser feita já preferencialmente neste verão, se o plano de vacinação correr bem em toda a União estaremos preparados para apoiar viagens e turismo, a mobilidade dos cidadãos europeus de forma segura e apoiando os Estados Membros e as nossas Regiões. Thank you very much for your intervention. The floor now and I want to welcome the President of Hot Rock Association, Jens Zimmer Christensen. The floor is yours, President. There seems to be a technical issue. Sorry. Okay, please go ahead. Mr President, thank you and your President, ministers, members of the European Parliament, members of the Committee of the Regions. Thank you for inviting Hot Rock to speak today. Hot Rock members are 45 national associations from 33 countries. Although tourism does not have a separate budget line in the EU, we try to be optimistic but also have to be realistic. As I speak, some businesses are in the reopening phase. However, many are still closed, some by law, while others are operating on the brink of disaster. At Hot Rock, we are particularly vigilant on the issue of level of deaths. As a consequence of the pandemic, many businesses are now operating with a negative equity which limits or prevent bank credits that are crucial to secure startup and operating capital. European hospitality sector is a major contributor to the European economy, supporting millions of jobs in every part of the Union. As representatives of cities, rural areas and regions, you will appreciate that hospitality, apart from its economic contributions, play an important social role in the communities. The sector supports a diverse and wide-ranging supply chain, including many small companies. On the positive side, the ongoing vaccination programs provide us with light at the end of the tunnel. The development of the coronavirus vaccines went historically fast and the relatively rapid rollout of vaccination programs already provide some protection. This said, our sector will also be affected by the pandemic in the coming years. Predictions suggest that we will not return to pre-COVID levels until 2023 or 2024. However, I am convinced that our sector will prevail. And what does it take? We do need support through the entire length of the crisis and beyond. From the beginning of the crisis, the European Union and the Member States have deployed massive support programs via the temporary framework or SHURE mechanisms. This still provides lifeline support to companies and workers. When the pandemic struck in 2020, the closing down quickly had devastating effects. Re-opening will require coordination among countries and not the least at EU level. And let me stress that reopening is not the same as recovery. And recovery will be bounty and it will be local and regional before we can talk national. Rebuilding consumer confidence will be a major challenge and we welcome the ongoing work on the EU COVID-19 certificate. And we encourage and support the project as an important element in restoring confidence. We must work together to rebuild hospitality and tourism. The recovery package put forward by the EU provides a unique opportunity to rebuild the industry. We look forward to the implementation. The hospitality sector can also help to drive the green and indicator transitions. The hospitality sector is already very active on sustainability, including reduction of food waste, reducing single-plastic use, and tackling the sector carbon emissions, mainly by reducing energy and water consumption. We must also use the opportunity to change the way tourism is handled, with a view to avoiding over-tourism and the fallouts from saying. Also restoring and educating the workforce is a priority in the post-COVID period. And finally, we must create better regulation-enabled businesses to recover. After 14 months of dealing with uncertainty, the sector is looking towards the respective governments for stability. We call for careful consideration on new regulation, allowing time for the sector to adapt to new dynamics and be careful not to slow down recovery. Our economic recovery will be neither instant nor easy. The pandemic's impact has been seismic, but the experience can be an inspiration to create at future value. We can only now see some new concepts are here to stay as part of a new normal, but still people miss people. Honourable members of the Committee of the Regents, dear friends and colleagues, let me assure you of the commitment for Hottrack and its members to work with you. A better future for hospitality is a better future for all. Thank you. Thank you very much, President. It is true that your voice is very mature and specific in asking for very, very important things for the support of the sector and we can only support these ideas as being part of the effort that we are all doing for the opening tourism. The floor now to the chair of the NACS commission, Ulrika Landergren. Thanks, 60 Kastas, and I will speak Swedish. Now, my ladies and gentlemen, tourism is not any brand at all. We have just heard of many. It is part of the European lifestyle. It makes us curious, open, tolerant of customers. It contributes to our European identity and sense of belonging. It really enriches us. Tourism is also an important economic activity that stands for 10% of EU's BNP. But behind these numbers, real workplaces for real people are dying. It is large workers for women. 58% of the employees in the industry are women and part of the young people are also much higher in tourism than in other sectors. For many of them, it is a summer job on the summer edge of the sea, their first work experience. Many will also stay in the sector and work for some of the unaccountable small and medium-sized companies or start their own in the tourism sector. To keep this life-threatening sector alive, we must start again. We have already lost two of our, one summer, one autumn and one winter. Another lost season will mean the end of many hotels, cafes, boat owners, new parks, tourist attractions. I will list how long it can last. To be able to save this sector, we have to vaccinate as soon as possible. Vaccination rates are increasing throughout Europe. We have to keep fresh and take care of the joy of travelling, meeting people and visiting new places. My colleagues in the night shift, and I have therefore decided to campaign, I will do it, and I have already vaccinated myself. We want to fight vaccination against the city and encourage people to vaccinate. It is solidarity and responsibility. So I challenge you, best colleagues, to follow our example, to participate in the campaign, vaccinate you, get your digital green information and start travelling again. And my last challenge, take care of them, but also be smart. Stunt in the overfilling travel goals and cover Europe's fantastic nature and landscape areas. After I have gone home in all these months, I think you should take care to bring the holidays out of the house. In Bergen, at the local garden, at the flood or lake, cycling, riding, hiking, paddling, canoeing, sailing, I have been allowed to turn leaves when it comes to mass tourism and to enjoy our summer in a sustainable way. That is how we make Europe again and allow tourism to grow. Thank you very much. The floor now to the CUR Rapporteur on Sustainable Tourism for EU Citizen Regions, Manuel Alejandro Cardenete Flores. We cannot hear you. Thank you very much, Mr President. They are members of the Committee of the Regions. I am going to change the Spanish. In the European Union, approved in the Senate of the Committee of the Regions, last December, as well as the dictation of the Euro-Deputy Claudia Montero, who has also spoken previously in this debate, establishing a sustainable tourism strategy for the EU, they are in common issues, some of which I will talk about later. First of all, we are at the Commission and the European Parliament, which includes in the next statistical program systems and follow-up tools that are adapted to the specific needs of the regions and cities, allowing an adequate traceability of the applied tourist policies. Secondly, we propose the creation of a new European sustainable tourism brand, aligned with the green pact and the 2030 agenda of the United Nations, taking into account the relevant regional strategies. And finally, we ask the European Commission to study the possibility of creating a general direction dedicated to sustainable tourism, something that I have also had the pleasure of hearing from my colleague from Portugal, Ms. Rita Mayor. We also urge the European Parliament to think of the creation of a special parliamentary commission focused on sustainable tourism. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you very much. Dear colleagues, we now open our debate to the members of the European Committee of the Regions and we start with Nikola Dobroslavic from the EPP for two minutes, please. Thank you, President, dear colleagues, I will speak in Croatian. This is even more important in Croatian, because 15 to 20% of the GDP is created in tourism. In Dubrovnik, in the Retvan region, in my region, this is even more so. And Dubrovnik, in Greece, had a fall in the tourist industry of more than 80%, which is a real economic catastrophe. The Croatian government is well-controlled in the pandemic, is responsible for the measures to maintain the supply and liquidity of the fortresses. Now that the supply chain has been reached, it is necessary to organize the fastening of ships, especially in tourist regions. It is also necessary to allow the free movement of the citizens throughout the European Union, because it is necessary to confirm the protocol that will also use tourism. The Covid travel agency or some other system that confirms that the person is vaccinated, that the Covid-19 is better, or that there is a negative PCR test, is needed. It is necessary to ensure the protection and carrying out approved protocols in all countries. These measures will prevent tourism, but they are also necessary for the citizens of the European Union, who feel the psychological consequences of the pandemic and the closure, and they will not be removed without the free movement of people, without travel and rest. So, fastening of ships, acceptable travel protocols, ships and whatever comes. Thank you. Thank you very much. The floor now to Donato Toma from the EPP for two minutes please. And under the Italian President of the International Forum that brings together the main economies of the world. The world leaders have agreed that the resumption of the tourist sector will play an essential role in the economic and social resumption of the entire European Union. When we talk about tourism, we mainly think of the extraordinary diversity of our continent. We think of the gigantic import of small and medium-sized companies, on which the economies and social content of entire territories are regulated. Tourism is linked to both the safeguarding of the artistic and architectural heritage, often related to regional and local authorities. Tourism depends on the whole landscape, on gastronomy, on local traditions, which are thanks to a sector that, before Covid-19, was in expansion, and now is in full crisis for the second consecutive year. My region, the Molise, is a very clear example of this. Our territory is formed by a small and medium-sized and medium-sized connective fabric in the family management, which is expected to have certain and temporary responses, also from the European government, and in full respect to the principle of subsidiarity. Mr. President, Mr. guests, I look with interest and wait to fully understand the implications of the Commission's proposal to create a digital green certificate that acts and ensures the free circulation within the European Union. We want it to be an opportunity and not a further burden for the citizens. I conclude by saying that the current crisis puts us in front of the challenge of thinking about the future tourism in a more sustainable way, and more attentive to the financial and immediate needs of the citizens and families that, through tourism, with courage and creativity, are rewarding our city and our regions. Thank you. Thank you, Emile. It's all there is now from the BES for four minutes. Also, without the pandemic, the framework conditions for the businessmen in the tourism industry were usually set as precarious. In terms of the small operating sizes, the operating co-determination structures are as good as unknown. The overall part of the business relationship in the hospitality industry is to adjust the low-cost area. And the average income of the relatively few full-time businessmen is less than half of the average income in Germany and in other European countries, it doesn't look better. To make it more fatal, the businessmen of this low income also have to make cuts, like, for example, for the short-term workers' money. This has also prevented short-term workers from working in the hospitality industry since the height of the short-term workers' money. However, the height of the excess net income is connected to the businessmen with high income cuts and the living costs would have continued to be unchanged here. Here, a minimum of short-term workers' money would have to be paid in Germany urgently. The drinking money that the businessmen normally get is not considered by the short-term workers' money or by the unemployment support. Workers often make a bare foot by saying that it is a part of the salary and saving money with it. And usually it is also in the industry that not all salary parts are reported, that is to say, taxed. And here, too, not only in Corona, the businessmen see this. I see big problems coming to the hospitality industry. I am the company manager in Germany for this industry. And right now, many professionals of the industry are turning their backs and are starting to orient themselves professionally. Among other things, because of the signatory precariousness and the feeling of especially hanging out. Few young people decide to go to this profession. And that is a shame. You should think that it is also in the interest of the employer in the hotel and hotel industry, the working environment and income conditions of their area to lead to the valid standards of a modern industrial society. And skeptics who don't think so without massive state interventions, I agree. The pandemic with its restrictions, especially for the hotel and hotel offices, leads us drastically in front of how important it is for a successful free time as well as for the life of the economy, a well led and with a satisfied, busy, blessed gastronomy and hotel industry. We all miss this, Mr. Christensen. You are right, there is a lack of quality of life. And that's why it is necessary to quickly vaccinate and test, test, test, but also check them out. Check the restaurants, the hotels, the guests for the protection of the employees and also the inhabitants. And we finally need more reliability. For everyone, not the constant back and forth, that has to stop. And the green certificate could be a solution here. Let us learn from the crisis. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. We now move to Mirja Verkaperra from Renew Europe for three minutes, please. I would like to ask you a question about how to get to the airport and the Canary Islands. The answer is difficult to answer when you grow up with everything. Covid-19 pandemic impacts on travel are measured in Europe. They are stopped there. The travel area competition is against the future if the pandemic continues on this way. We need the level of Europe and the local decisions so that the service areas of travel can be stopped. At the level of Europe, the pandemic situation is a hell of a mess. The lack of sufficient care, the lack of protection, and the need for a healthy travel. We need a passport or a green passport, which can guarantee the COVID-19 situation at the travel area. At the level of Europe, the financial burden of the company is terrible. Hopefully, each of you in your own country has been paid for the company's work in the middle of the company. In Finland, companies have the right to develop their work. Developments are put into place and operated. These activities include building facilities, heating and energy management changes, marketing innovations, and the development of digitalization. Now, if ever there is a local travel, Finland's most popular travel centers and cities are full of greenery. They are full of travel agencies at home. Greenery boom, close to travel and business activities continue on this way. We have already talked about two kinds of services, which are paid for by each of the services. They are sent to the residential and public services. Locally, we are open to travel and business activities on the streets of Vuhkirja. During the summer, outside and during the summer holidays, the city market is open to local businesses and businesses. The city is open to the public and business activities, and the city is open to the public and business activities. The coronavirus restrictions have been really tight. There have been serious surveillance cameras. Now, the shopping malls are located directly with the city or at home. People have been using the residential services. Takeaway food is sold extensively. The new shopping malls are added to the whole area. For example, the food market, which is located in the middle of the city, is located on the peak of the market and is located in the area of the shopping malls. We are waiting for the summer of close travel, and the beginning of a possible health-friendly travel. Thank you. Thank you very much. The floor now to Marco Marcilio from the ECR for two and a half minutes. Good morning and thank you, President. In order to allow a return of the tourist compartment as soon as possible, we need to prioritize or implement health protocols in order to provide the health care system with the needs of tourist operators. These protocols will be more efficient, and the tourist status will be higher in the choice of destinations. It is difficult for travelers to stay in the country because of the control of access and management with a low vaccination index and with a high epidemiological incidence, i.e. in those countries where they are imposed, they cover quarantine. Some trends occurred during the pandemic will be consolidated in the immediate future. Sustainable destinations characterized by a low tourist density will be preferred compared to the localities historically deputed to mass tourism. Therefore, the tourist program will have to focus on the validation of this natural predisposition of our internal and coastal localities. As an ECR, we have proposed to invest on the screenings that have gone to the base of tampons that can be questioned through QR codes. We have immediately identified, as an immediate solution, the one to give up a green and digital certificate, a green pass on the basis of what the international organization of airline companies is trying through an application for mobile devices with which to manage effective tests and vaccines. But these certificates must be non-discriminatory. People who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons, for example, must be able to travel and access the basic services because they recently have a negative test. Moreover, such tests should be easily accessible for everyone. Only in this way can we avoid losing tourist flows in favor of communication and moving in this direction. A first step that appears to be an acceleration of the vaccination campaign within the European Union needs to be supported and implemented efficiently to ensure parity of treatment within the Union. It would then be necessary to intervene to seal the companies and banners reportedly penalized in countries such as Italy, from the IAE directive on services, the Borkstein directive. Regarding this, I would like to emphasize that it is necessary to emphasize that our beaches are well and not serviced, that they are not subject to the lack of well-being and that there are several reasons for general interest that allow us to exclude from the fundamental sectors from the application field of the directive in question once and for all. Thank you. Thank you very much, Maria Antoinette Maupetius from the IAE Group for two minutes, please. Yes, thank you, Mr. President. Madam Minister, Madam Secretary of State, Madam Deputy, Mr. President, the Covid crisis has shown the importance of the tourist sector for the European economy. It is when the movements have been disturbed that we have all understood what the value of this industry was, its engine role for our cities, our regions and the effects that the pandemic could have on this sector and on all the branches that depend on it, in Amon and in Aval. In particular, the release and restoration represent in many territories hundreds of family companies sometimes installed for several generations. Some are considerably in debt, others will not open up. Bar owners of restaurants cannot resume their activities even when the administrative closures are raised because they do not have terrace on the floor, they cannot apply social distancing. The seasoners lose their jobs, the suppliers are impacted. My territory, La Corse, has paid a heavy tribute to the crisis not only because its GDP depends on almost a third of tourism, but also because it is an island and it totally depends on external transport. In 2020, half of the tourist recipe was banned, nearly 1.5 billion euros, 15% of GDP with depressive effects on the whole of the economy. In the context of the release plan, Next Generation EU, we obtained a global envelope of about 33 million euros. In the Reactive EU title, we will of course mobilize to help our companies to rise but also to strengthen our sustainable tourism strategy. A four-season tourism for employees, better distributed in space and in time, more resilient to the shock. We also signed, last April 27, a route sheet of tourism reliance with our member state that goes in that direction. These support are important like all the accomplishment, the supplement of the relative rules to the state's aid, but they are far from enough to put the sector on foot and set up the real reprise. Thus, airports and regional ports must also be supported, especially in European islands. But the most urgent, the most urgent is to restore trust by securing the destinations of the health point. We must strengthen the European coordination and adopt common and effective safety protocols in very fast letters. We count on the Portuguese presidency to achieve a rapid adoption of the important rule on the digital health certificate and at the dawn of a new summer tourism season that is going to be complicated, we will show to the tourism professionals and citizens that the place can act efficiently and quickly. Thank you, Mr President. The floor to Satu Hapanen from the greens for two minutes please. The Good call to the European and also the social right to travel is important that we also ensure that the possibility of family to see new women and culture and to enrich our own life. Thank you to Thank you very much. The floor now to Hala Znanowska for one minute please. Hala, we cannot hear you, there is no sound. Until we fix the problem, Juan Calabuegru for one minute please. Thank you very much President. Look, mobility is essential and for that it is essential and urgent to conclude the digital, green, European certification and to reach an agreement of reciprocity also in this issue with the United Kingdom, which has a very important impact. The semaphore system that is being proposed must be applied by regions, given that there are great differences within the countries. Also, the detection test of COVID-19 for the mobility of tourists within the Union must be offered in a free way, avoiding discrimination of people for economic reasons. Finally, that is to say that the network of European regions for a sustainable and competitive tourism of which we form a part, raises the need to count with a European agenda of tourism as it has been raised for the 2050 perspective, in which it is contemplated as a key factor to achieve the objectives of the green pact and the digital era. For that transition it will be necessary to offer a technical assistance program and an adequate financial framework. Thank you very much President. Thank you very much. Dietmar Brokis for one minute please. I would like to give two examples. On the one hand, we have digital model projects in the communities that already have a seven-day incidence value of under 100. There, digital measures, digital tools are being tried out, especially in the culture and sport sector, for example, but also in gastronomy to be safe there. And we have set up a budget of 11 million for so-called digital coaches to help the affected businesses to ensure a safe tourism over the digitalisation. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Sonya Ledl-Rosman, please, for one minute. Thank you very much President. And because of all the word messages, we are absolutely agree that we need urgent measures to be able to get our tourism, hotels and gastronomy businesses. On the one hand, of course, we have to keep the pandemic going, but it is also really very important that we have uniform European criteria for border closure and, above all, border openings. And this should not only be the incidence value, but also the value of the vaccination, how much it is tested, or also the hospitalisation quota should be considered. Especially for border regions such as my home country, Räute in the north of Tirol, which is very close to the southern German region, the border connections are really hard for daily life, for family business, but of course also for the hotel and gastronomy sector. Because such border regions are also important for short-term holidays or day-off flights. Customers who have been away for a long time, so we really have to do everything that we can reopen the borders and above all keep them open. Thank you. Thank you very much. Piero Mauro Zanin, for one minute. Thank you, Mr. President, my dear colleagues, my dear guests. I believe that the Committee of the Regions should mainly work to make sure that the funds of the recovery fund promised by the European Union are directed towards the recovery, especially of the internal areas that are occupied by tourism, because the departure of the most important areas will certainly be faster, while the internal areas will suffer from this pandemic. To do this, if I think of Florence and Giulia, a region in the north of Italy, I think that we will have to promote interventions that favor slow tourism and that, for example, in Florence and Giulia, set up five city-unesco networks that we have, one of the regions that have the largest number of city-unesco for residents. Another essential thing is to support all the non-astronomic network that can support the company of tourism through the promotion of companies that produce biological products that are miles away. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you very much. Cesar Bielski, for one minute, please. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and colleagues. I represent the Lower Siles region, where tourism is one of the main development pillars. In order to save this sector, we have started a financial support system that has allowed many entrepreneurs to save jobs. We also carry out financial operations. For example, campaigns that encourage to use the value of tourist regions and special online services promoting local offers. Now, when we try to start our economy again, there is an important co-operation. With the power of the government and its entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurs are perfectly aware of the matters of the affected areas. A safe management of the economy must, in accordance with the mandatory regulations and sanitary regimes. We have found ourselves in a new situation, we must develop new solutions. Each region has its own experience related to the crisis, so we must use the knowledge of the experience of each region. We are working on a mechanism that allows us to protect ourselves in the future, so that a new wave of the pandemic or other threats will not paralyze our economy again. We really cannot afford it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. President, dear colleagues, we are aware that even if many of us improve the lives of small and medium-sized companies, it will be much different. As a region, we believe that it will now serve our help. In the Košice region, we have decided to support many projects such as tourism. We have fallen in love with the director that we will do our best to use our excellent capabilities. The proper travel to nature and the areas of cultural tradition need to support and promote this knowledge of the protection of the nature of the country's behavior with nature and the original character of life in the region and then the protection of our European diversity. For example, as we know, we are trying to implement and transform this activity in the ecological form of the industry. Dear colleagues, please allow us to successfully implement our measures of support in the region. Thank you very much. I represent Åland and we are in the middle of Östersjön. There are 30,000 people who live here. And we are greatly affected by this pandemic. We had 9.3 million passengers during the trip via Åland 2019. In Fjol, it was reduced to 2.4 million. 25% of the passengers have been in the tourism sector. And now the unemployment rate has gone from 4% to 12%. So it is a high percentage. It is important that we all of Europe work for this. I think that the man from EU and Portugal should be a tourist year in 2021 and 2022. We are starting in the middle of this year. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ivan Alexiev, please. For one minute. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you trader. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very very much. Thank you. Thank you for this very important discussion. Tourism has a lot of possibilities and as always the crisis is always a possibility. Now we certainly have a chance to change the tourism towards a more sustainable system. We definitely need all the investments and everything that's been said here is very important. But at the same time, let's combine this to our European objectives towards more sustainable development. Thank you so much and stay safe. Thank you, you too. And finally, Agnes Rampal, for one minute please. Thank you. Yes, go ahead. We can't hear you now. Well, Mr President, as you all can see, tourism is essential to our economy. And in the plan of relaunch that we hope for, we also need a trans-frontal vision and a vision of co-ordinated neighbors for our territories. In the Mediterranean, there are 22 countries around a small sea. And it is imperative that this vision is generalized and in this context, a macro-regional strategy would be extremely useful. I thank you. Thank you very much. And thank you to all of our members who participated in this debate. I would like now to give the floor to our three guests for their final remarks and their reaction. And I will start with the Secretary of State for Tourism of Portugal, Rita Marquez, for three minutes please. Is it working? Can you hear me? Yes. Okay, perfect. Okay, so thank you again for your very insightful inputs. After listening to you all, I have three main topics that I would like very much to address. First of all, it seems that we are very much concerned about the pandemic consequences in the tourist sector. But this is also an opportunity to reinvent the sector and to see its potential as far as economic growth, employment, social and environment sustainable development, and everything that's pretty much related to these topics. So this crisis is really an opportunity for us to identify the tourism contribution towards the preservation and promotion of European values, our cultural heritage and also the regional impact of it, of course. So I think this is the first message that I would like very much to convey to you. And second message is, of course, we do know that quality education skills development here play an important role. So we think that tourism could really lead the way as far as young people, gender equality, lifelong learning processes. And this is really important now. We should encourage student and professional exchanges in order to improve the digital skills by tourism professionals at all levels. And again, because tourism is a very complex activity that has impact across several activities, because tourism is an horizontal activity that depends and influences several sectors. I do believe that training and qualification of high-skill professionals is really something that we should pursue. The third message and that we think this is important, we all know that we have this ambition to develop a sustainable, responsible, resilient, social tourism policy and strategy. But we also know that this strategy or this ambition depends on funding. And so it's very important to invite the Commission to think about tourism in the long term. That's why I mentioned in the very beginning the need to have an agenda for 2030-2015. But again, as for funding, as funding is concerned, we do need to have the correct or adequate funding sources for tourism in order to push for its high potential, its high impact in all the other sectors and to continue to give a huge contribution for economic activity in Europe. And so at the end of the day, it seems that we do need a comprehensive funding sources for tourism, not only in the next framework but also in the next generation EU, as has been said before. A last note about the impact of all this. So we should monitor the impact. And so that's why we have been advocating the need to have a tourism dashboard that could really be a tool for all tourism ecosystem, including of course the regions. And this too could serve to help, it could be used to help to assess the strategies and policies that all of us would like to implement. And to determine future goals towards the development of tourism in a more social responsible way as we all aim at. So thank you again for this very nice invitation and we'll do our best at the Portuguese presidency to pursue these goals for sure. Thank you for your cooperation. Thank you very much Secretary of State, Miss Marques, for your participation and your very valuable input. I now give the floor to the member of the European Parliament, Claudia Monteiro de Aguiar, for three minutes. Thank you. Mr President, Mrs de Aguiar is not connected anymore. Okay, which means that the floor now goes to the President of the Hotrich Association, Jens Zimmer Christensen, for three minutes. Thank you very much Mr President and I have been listening with interest to the various remarks today. No doubt when you use the expression tourism, hospitality, a certain part of the market is covered by domestic national guests. This set, international travel, cross border travel is essential for the sector to survive. And when we do talk hospitality and tourism, it also includes conferences, meetings, trade fairs, culture, museums, concerts and so forth. I have come to the conclusion that although certain temporary solutions can further the tourism business, in the end it will have to be vaccination and a certain kind of herd immunity, which will have to save us in the long run. The worst things which can happen now is that we have to close down again, because we get assert or false wave over Europe. And the fact that certain countries are advanced in administering vaccinations and are receiving a certain immunity level. It is good of course for the individual countries, but again it is not enough that we have one, three or four countries within the EU not to speak about the world which are safe. It has to be the whole world more or less which we have to vaccinate. And of course what I say here is easier said than done, but that is also because we expect 2021 this year more or less to be lost unfortunately, not the least as far as hotels are concerned in the bigger cities. But as I've said in my introduction, we remain optimistic and we will beat this and we will recover for the benefit of all. Thank you. Thank you very much President, dear colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to thank first of all all of our guests who participated in this very interesting debate. Indeed, we have discussed this very important issue on tourism and how we will reopen tourism in a safe manner, the quickest possible, because this sector is beneficial for the economies of most European countries. And of course at the same time it's creating thousands and hundreds of thousands of jobs all across Europe. So indeed, especially for countries like mine, like Greece, tourism is the number one priority for now. So having said that, I want to thank again the Secretary, the State Secretary, the Minister and the member of the European Parliament as well as the President of Hotrek for being here today with us. And I also want to thank each and every one of you colleagues who have followed and participated in this very important debate of the third day of our plenary this week. We will now move to a break and we will reconvene at 11.30am in half an hour, Russell's time, for the very, very interesting debate on the Conference on the Future of Europe, which starts on Sunday. So I will be looking forward for this interesting debate in half an hour from now. Thank you very much.