BRUSSELS, Jan 22, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – EU leaders on Thursday “strongly
discouraged” Europeans from non-essential travel and warned tougher
restrictions on trips could come within days if efforts to curb the
coronavirus fell short.
EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel issued the warning after
a four-hour summit by video link with the heads of government of the 27-
nation bloc focused on responding to the second wave of the pandemic.
The tone of urgency was fuelled by fears over the spread of highly
contagious coronavirus variants that could send already high infection rates
skyrocketing and strain hospitals, as is happening in former EU member
Britain.
“All non-essential travel should be strongly discouraged both within the
country and of course across borders,” von der Leyen, head of the European
Commission, told a media conference.
Michel, president of the European Council, said: “It will be probably
necessary to take additional restrictive measures in order to limit the non-
essential travels and that is the orientation that we are taking.”
Both added that further coordination on that issue would be made in “the
next days”.
But both also said the EU wanted to avoid a repeat of the height of the
first wave, in March last year, when several member states panicked and
closed off national borders unilaterally, triggering travel and economic
chaos.
“It is absolutely important to keep the single market functioning,” von der
Leyen said, so that workers and freight can continue to cross borders.
The European Union is “one epidemiological zone,” she said.
“We will only contain the virus if we have targeted measures, and not
unnecessary measures like a blanket closure of borders, which would severely
hurt our economy, but not very much restrict the virus.”
But to avoid closing the intra-EU borders in the passport-free Schengen
zone, testing needs to be stepped up, leaders agreed.
From Sunday, anybody arriving from outside the EU — possible only for
those with essential reasons — could have to have a test for Covid-19 before
departure, von der Leyen said.
Within the EU, some countries will apply prior testing for cross-border
trips that do not come under essential categories such as workers and truck
drivers.
From Sunday France will require a negative PCR test 72 hours before
departure for most European arrivals other than those on essential travel,
President Emmanuel Macron told the European Council, according to his office.
A statement from Macron’s office said “some of his European counterparts”
have also chosen this approach.
– Variant spreading in Portugal –
The summit also backed wider use of antigen tests in other situations
deemed low-risk. Those tests, often using saliva samples, are cheaper and
faster — though less reliable — than nose-probing PCR tests.
Thursday’s summit started just as the European Centre for Disease
Prevention and Control said there was a “very high” probability of the more
contagious variants spreading in the European Union.
These mutations — which emerged in Britain, South Africa and Brazil —
have already prompted bans or restrictions on travellers from those
countries.
Belgium — wedged between Germany, France and the Netherlands — had gone
into the summit pleading for a “temporary” closure during its February
holiday period.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had also voiced support “for stricter
entry controls and testing requirements to keep virus mutations out”.
Currently, the concerning variants remain a tiny proportion of overall
cases in most of the EU.
But Portugal is serving as an early warning of what may be to come.
Its government ordered schools closed for two weeks because of the rapid
spread of the British variant, which Prime Minister Antonio Costa said
accounted for 20 percent of infections and could make up 60 percent as soon
as next week.
While there was no indication as yet the new variants were more deadly,
there were concerns their faster spread could overload hospital intensive
care capacity.
– Vaccine certificates –
After a disappointingly slow start to vaccination in the EU, the European
Commission has been urging greater speed from member states.
It hopes to soon authorise more vaccines beyond the BioNTech/Pfizer and
Moderna ones currently being injected, and aims to inoculate 70 percent of
adults in the EU before September.
The leaders also discussed vaccine certificates, something tourism-
dependent countries such as Greece hope might ease travel curbs and save what
looks like another disastrous summer vacation period.
But EU leaders decided it was too early and too many questions remained for
such a certificate to be used as anything more than a health record.