EU sends pensioners packing..

No – this is serious (It’s NOT a late April Fools day joke!) and was announced yesterday in the UK…(!!)Why do you go on an overseas holiday? – Most likely to reward yourself and your partner/family for a years hard work..Aha! Not any more! Now the gnomes in Brussells have declared that that tourism is also a human right and pensioners, youths and those too poor to afford it should have their travel subsidised by the taxpayer. Under the scheme, UK pensioners could be given cut-price trips to Spain, while Greek teenagers could be taken around disused mills in Manchester to experience the cultural diversity of Europe. (whassat?) The idea is the brainchild of Antonio Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, who was appointed by Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister. (aha! – that’s the connection = Italy=no work=free holidays!)

The scheme, which is estimated to cost hundreds of millions of pounds a year, is “intended to promote a sense of pride in European culture, bridge the north-south divide in the continent and prop up resorts in their off-season”. (C’mon Aussie C’mon.. how about a Melbourne – Queensland deal like this?) Tajani, who unveiled his plan last week at a ministerial conference in Madrid, believes the days when holidays were a luxury have gone. “Travelling for tourism today is a right. The way we spend our holidays is a formidable indicator of our quality of life,” he said. Tajani, who was a transport commissioner, said he had been able to “affirm the rights of passengers” in his previous office and the next step was to ensure people’s “right to be tourists”.

(The European Union has some experience of subsidised holidays already….In February the EP (European Parliament) provided contributions of up to 50% towards a skiing trip in the Italian Alps for 80 children of Eurocrats…(Shhhh..!!)

Tajani’s scheme will be a pilot project until 2013 and is then planned to be put into full operation. It will be open to pensioners and anyone over 65, young people between 18 and 25, disabled people, and families facing “difficult social, financial or personal” circumstances, with the disabled and the elderly accompanied by another person. In the initial phase, Southern Europeans will be encouraged to visit Northern Europe and vice versa. Details have not yet been finalised, but it is expected the EU will subsidise about 30% of the cost. Officials have envisaged sending Europeans to Manchester (why?) and Liverpool (That will be funny – Italians talking to ‘Scousers’ – need a interpreter for that!) on a tour of “archeological and industrial sites” such as closed factories and power plants. Tajani’s spokesman said: “Why should someone from the Mediterranean not be able to travel to Edinburgh in summer for a breath of cool, fresh air; and why should someone from Edinburgh not be able to travel to Greece in winter?”

The idea is supposedly based on a project in Spain in which holidays in the winter off-season are subsidised by the government for European residents aged 55 and over. Spain calculated that for every €1 it spent in subsidies, €1.6 was gained for its resorts.

Filed by London Based e-Global Travel News Correspondent