On Wednesday 15 April, the European Commission presented its roadmap for the lifting of restrictions in EU Member States, taking great care to point out that the document has nothing to say about the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic (see EUROPE 12466/2).
“This is not a signal that the lockdown measures can be lifted now, but a framework for reflection and decision by Member States”, said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, as the epidemic passed the 2 million mark worldwide.
Coordination is the keyword. The roadmap sets out the assessment criteria for the relaxation of measures, the principles that should guide EU and Member State action and the measures to be taken in parallel, and a series of recommendations from the Commission.
The watchword here is “coordination”. The roadmap instructs Member States to notify the measures they intend to take via the Health Security Committee and to take account of the comments of the other Member States.
Denmark and Austria have done so informally and, with this roadmap, we want to make it more systematic and structured, a Commission source said. However, the roadmap abandons the idea of a working group of contact points.
Testing guidelines. The paper points out that having large-scale testing capabilities is an important precondition for the lifting of physical distancing measures. This is why the Commission has adopted, in parallel, guidelines on in vitro diagnostic tests (covering both immunology and infection tests), of which only 200 tests with CE marking exist to date.
This document announces the establishment of a network of reference laboratories throughout the EU, specifically to facilitate the exchange of information and to identify the needs of laboratories. It also invites manufacturers to produce test kits that correspond to the “state of the art”, i.e. not worse than what can reasonably be expected and is being achieved by the majority of devices.
Future initiatives. The roadmap also announces detailed guidelines for a gradual reopening of transport services, network connectivity and freedom of movement in view of the summer holidays. And the creation of an early warning function to identify disruptions in the supply chain that could result from asymmetric lifting of lockdown measures inside or outside the EU, business failures, or interference by third parties. It also instructs the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to regularly update the criteria for ending quarantine measures, which the Commission considers to be “the most effective” approach until a vaccine is discovered.
See the roadmap: https://bit.ly/2VyyZqj and the testing guidelines: https://bit.ly/3cfPy0I https://bit.ly/3cfPy0I ]">] (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)