As
\npart of efforts to contain the spread of the virus that has already caused over
\n2.1 million deaths globally and of its even more contagious mutated variants, European
\nUnion leaders called for non-essential travel between countries to be limited, describing
\nthe situation as very serious. The talks held by the 27 EU leaders in
\nvideoconference format highlighted the common wish of the bloc’s countries to
\ncoordinate among themselves while ensuring the functioning of the single market
\nand the transport of goods. They also looked at the situation of cross-border
\nworkers, as part of efforts to prevent situations like those seen last spring
\nwhen the lack of harmonised decisions led to significant disruptions. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The
\npresident of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said EU is increasingly
\nworried about the different mutations of the virus. Citing the recommendations
\nof the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, she said all
\nnon-essential travel should be strongly discouraged. She also spoke about a new
\ndefinition of risk zones to include territories from a number of member states
\nwhere health measures should be coordinated. The virus doesn’t know about
\nborders, von der Leyen explained: <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
You
\ncan have an area where there is, on both sides, in two member states close to
\neach other, the same epidemiological situation, but if in one half of this zone
\nyou do a strong lockdown and in the other half of this zone you keep shops open,
\nyou will have immediately movement of people to the other side to do shopping,
\nfor example. That’s pushing forward the spread of the virus and the dissemination
\nof the virus. So, it is smart to look at homogeneous areas and there have
\ntargeted measures that the member states then can in coordination apply to make
\nsure that we contain the spread of the virus as much as possible and on the other
\nhand keep the flow in the single market as much as possible open.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Travellers
\nfrom high-risk epidemiological zones may be subject to obligatory testing and
\nquarantine. As for countries from outside the EU, additional security measures
\nare proposed for essential travel to Europe, such as testing before departure,
\nvon der Leyen also said. On the eve of the summit, EU leaders also reached an
\nagreement on the mutual recognition of the results of tests, both PCR and rapid
\nantigen tests. The community bloc also aims to increase by at least 15% the
\nverification of positive Covid tests to detect possible mutations. Additionally,
\nmember states stood for stepping up vaccination campaigns while ensuring
\nconstant and predictable vaccine deliveries, aiming to vaccinate 70% of the
\nbloc’s adult population by summer. (CM)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
EU leaders held online summit, saying non-essential travel among member states should be discouraged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":87812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[35339,29120,29878],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-87811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-eu","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n