“In the next few days”, the European Commission is expected to publish a draft Council of the EU recommendation to coordinate the measures Member States are taking to tackle Covid-19. The announcement was made on Tuesday 1 September by a Commission spokesperson, in response to a request to comment on Hungary's unilateral decision to close its internal borders to the Schengen area of free movement (see other news).
On Wednesday 2 September, Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) will discuss which measures might be included in the recommendation. They will base their discussions on an unofficial document prepared by the German Presidency of the EU Council, which proposes a series of ‘set screws’.
In the document, Berlin mentions the possibility of using the same quantitative and qualitative data throughout Europe and of mapping the data clearly and jointly, a process that will have to be analysed at the same level (national or sub-national).
The German Presidency also suggests joint analysis of the epidemiological risk, based on common thresholds (e.g. incidence rate, screening rate, occupancy of intensive care beds, or a combination of criteria), and the creation of a joint list of risk areas. Lastly, Germany calls for information to be circulated and for a common framework of measures to be triggered with regard to risk areas (screening, masks, re-entering lockdown, etc.).
Last week, the European Commission circulated the idea of introducing “common criteria for determining epidemiological risk”, a “colour-coded system for identifying risk areas” and “measures to be put in place when these risk areas return” (see EUROPE 12549/6).
We have been told that France has also submitted a written contribution to the Coreper discussions.
“We will see on Wednesday if all EU member states can support the idea of closer Covid-19 coordination. This is going to be a rather challenging exercise since it is all a matter of national competence”, one European diplomat commented. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)