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Conte Lashes Out as EU Members Shut Door to Italy Travelers

Conte Lashes Out as EU Members Shut Door to Italian Travelers

(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte attacked Italy’s neighbors for maintaining travel restrictions on his citizens even as they start to open up again to other European nationals.

Austria announced Wednesday that it will lift travel controls for all neighboring countries with the exception of Italy, because the infection numbers across its southern border are still too high. Greece has already said it’s not yet ready to let all Italians in.

Those nations have “no reason” to “discriminate” against travelers from Italy, Conte said at a press conference on Wednesday.

His foreign minister, Luigi Di Maio, later added that Italy would expect “reciprocity” on border openings and was working to persuade its neighbors to open up.

Austria may allow border crossings with Italy to resume June 15, but only for Italian regions less hit by the coronavirus crisis, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said in an interview with Corriere della Sera on Thursday.

Greece plans to allow free travel from airports deemed safe by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency from June 15, but will test arriving passengers from regions considered “at high risk of transmission,” including virus-hit northern Italian regions such as Lombardy and Veneto.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.