The French President has declared a “first victory against the virus,” as he said that all of France would be in the ‘green zone’ from Monday, June 15. The move will mean that restaurants and cafes in Paris will be able to serve customers inside as well as on their terraces.

Emmanuel Macron used a 20-minute TV address on Sunday evening to say that the country will reopen its borders with non-EU countries from July 1, but only in cases “where the epidemic has been controlled.” He added that all schoolchildren under 16 and pre-schoolers will be required to go back to school from June 22.

“We are going to get some of our art de vivre back, our taste, our freedom. In short, we are going to get France back,” Macron said. “This does not mean that the virus is gone and that we can completely lower our guard. We will have to respect physical distancing rules for a long time to come. The summer of 2020 will not be a summer like any other and we will have to keep watch over the evolution of the epidemic,” he added.

The President praised the Franco-German proposal to finance a EU recovery fund through the pooling of debt as “an unprecedented step in our European adventure and the consolidation of an independent Europe which gives itself the means to assert its identity, its culture, its uniqueness against China, the United States and the world order we know.”

France recorded 24 new deaths from coronavirus on Saturday, June 13.