To avoid new travel restrictions during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. This is what the leaders of the 27 countries of the European Union wanted in Luxembourg to guarantee a common guideline for travel restrictions and tests.
" Citizens have been severely affected by the travel restrictions imposed throughout the European Union. The Commission's mission has always been to ensure that all EU citizens can move as freely as possible within the Union despite the pandemic. Guaranteeing the right to free movement goes beyond the functioning of the internal market" says Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Justice.
Since August, the Commission has called on all Member States to adopt a coordinated approach to travel restrictions by issuing clear recommendations. I call on all EU ministers to agree quickly on a coordinated and simple approach," said the Commission: a map of the Union, common criteria and clear information on a weekly basis" said Didier Reynders last week.
But the EU is facing a real political headache. The Commission has no mandate to coordinate action in the health field. Hence the the measures decided upon have failed to resolve the problem of travellers needing to move quickly from one member state to another.
Traffic lights
The most important measure is the creation of a red, orange and green traffic map. The European health agency ECDC will coordinate all the information from each EU country and update each country's stains every week.
These colours are based on the number of new cases reported per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days, and also include the rate of positive tests carried out..
A region will be classified as green if the rate of notification of people with covid over 14 days is less than 25 per 100,000 and the test positivity rate is less than 4 %. At the opposite end of the colour spectrum, a red zone would be one in which the number of new cases of Covid-19 is greater than 50 over 14 days and the percentage of positive tests is equal to or greater than 3%. Areas where the total number of Covid-19 cases exceeds 150 per 100,000 people over 14 days are also tinted red.
In fact, according to the criteria adopted on Tuesday, most EU regions are currently in the red; at best they are in orange.
Quarantines and tests at the discretion of countries
The only certainty is that, in future, entry bans will only apply to green zones. The orange and red zones will remain in limbo, depending on the country, as there has been no agreement on the application of common rules for travel to these regions.
The Council of the EU merely reiterated that Member States should not refuse access to people travelling from other EU countries. The Council invited them to "respect the differences in the epidemiological situation between the orange and red zones and to act proportionately" if they decide to apply restrictions.
Nor have the Member States agreed on European standards for quarantine and testing rules.. The associations representing the air transport industry bitterly regret this.
In a statement, ACI Europe (airports), Airlines for Europe and IATA regretted that the Member States had not adopted a common pre-departure covid test procedure to replace quarantines. The quarantines are still mandatory when planning any trip.
" The current lack of coordination between Member States has killed off the nascent recovery in travel and tourism, putting millions of jobs associated with the sector at risk." they stressed in a joint statement.
The prerogative of national governments is merely to guarantee a minimum opening of borders and to allow frontier workers to move freely. The decision of the 27 appears far too timid to revive the travel sector and encourage business travel. Meanwhile, the circulation of the virus is increasing - with or without quarantine, with or without strict border closures.
