Poland will reopen its borders with other European Union countries this Saturday, 13 June, and permit international flights from next Tuesday, 16 June, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced today.
Poland’s borders have been closed from mid-March to people who are not citizens or residents of the country. Those permitted to enter the country have been obliged to go into quarantine for two weeks on arrival.
International air and rail passenger connections have also been suspended, although domestic flights were resumed on 1 June.
In a press conference today, Morawiecki said, “We have been able to quickly bring about the return of our economy to third, fourth gear, and soon, I hope, fifth gear. We need to restore trade contacts with the European Union as soon as possible,” reports Onet.
European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz confirmed that Poland had given information that from 13 June it was suspending controls and restrictions on the internal EU borders.
“From 16 June flights will be possible, although of course carriers need to adapt,” Morawiecki said. “They will probably need a week, two, or three to prepare their flight networks, booking and so on.” He said that the Polish national airline LOT had been informed that it could begin planning for a return.
Od soboty 13 czerwca będzie można swobodnie podróżować i przekraczać granice wewnętrzne Unii Europejskiej.
Więcej ➡ https://t.co/4ljYTorC9I pic.twitter.com/4lsoekPN2q
— Kancelaria Premiera (@PremierRP) June 10, 2020
The prime minister did not mention whether the quarantine requirement would still apply to people arriving in Poland, Onet notes. However, information published by the government soon after confirmed that travellers would not have to enter quarantine.
“We are at an important moment in the battle with coronavirus…We don’t know what will happen in a month, two, or three. But today we can say that we are handling the risk in the right way,” Morawiecki said.
Poland has had a relatively low number of coronavirus infections and deaths by European standards. However, unlike in almost all other EU countries, the number of new and active cases of the virus are not yet in decline.
Record numbers of infections were recorded over the weekend and on Monday. But the majority of cases are from a single province, Silesia, where there have been mass outbreaks in mines.
Main image credit: Radosław Drożdżewski/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
