The thinking behind a European Union roadmap to set out the process for lifting lockdown measures is not yet ready. Although the European Commission announced that its President would be officially presenting an initiative on this matter, it was forced to back-pedal on Wednesday 8 April. Ultimately, the College of Commissioners did not adopt a recommendation, instead restricting itself to a simple discussion on the issue.
Commission spokesman Eric Mamer told the press that “the timing of the adoption of our recommendation is a tricky issue because Member States find themselves in different stages of the pandemic”. He added that “We have been working on a recommendation but it was felt after contact with Member States that a bit more time was needed”.
Member States divided
A number of Member States, including Austria, Denmark and the Czech Republic, announced a timetable earlier this week for gradually lifting the lockdown measures in their countries (see EUROPE 12462/5).
Denmark is particularly ambitious in its scheduling of the reopening of pre-schools and primary schools from 15 April. These announcements prompted the Commission to announce the imminent publication of European guidelines to ensure “coordinated, coherent and comprehensive” measures.
However, this announcement seems to have led to some criticism from countries including France, Italy and Spain, who want to be more involved in the process (even though this is only a recommendation). They are concerned that these guidelines might send “the wrong message”. In France, for example, initial data shows a lower than expected level of immunity to the coronavirus in the French population, at around 10 to 15%, according to Jean-François Delfraissy, the president of France’s scientific council.
WHO calls for countries not to let down their guard
When asked about these differences in approach, the European Regional Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) called for the utmost caution.
“Any change in our response strategies, or in the relaxation of lockdown measures or physical distancing will require very rigorous analysis. This can only happen if we are completely confident, and if we know where the virus is and how our respective health services are dealing with it”, said Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director.
He believes that, in order to interrupt the chain of transmission, priority should be given to testing campaigns, isolation measures where screening tests return a positive result, and identification of people who have come into contact with anyone who has contracted the virus.
Initiative only “postponed”
However, Mamer said that the Commission has no intention of abandoning its initiative, and was simply postponing it. “We intend to proceed with adopting the guidelines in the near future, but we will remain responsive to any developments that occur”, he explained.
He emphasised that the Commission’s objective is to provide guidelines to those Member States that believe they are ready to relax lockdown measures, and to do so without giving EU citizens a misleading picture.
At their meeting on 30 March, the epidemiologists and immunologists on the Advisory Scientific Committee mentioned a number of criteria that will need to be taken into account, including the capacity of intensive care units, the level of acquired immunity and virus circulation, and a stable decline in the number of new cases and intensive care cases (see EUROPE 12462/5). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)