On Tuesday, 22 September, the European affairs ministers of the EU Member States took note of a progress report on the coordination of their response measures against Covid-19 and their impact on freedom of movement in the EU and recalled their “commitment” to a functional Schengen area, reported German State Secretary for European Affairs Michael Roth.
“Citizens are very attached to Schengen; we have seen the constraints that all the restrictions have created”, the minister commented, saying he was “satisfied that all the Member States have committed themselves to the fundamentals of Schengen, the Internal Market”.
This coordinating approach should lead to an EU Council recommendation that “hopefully will help Member States to emerge from the crisis and give more transparency on decisions taken that are sometimes criticised”, the German official said. The Commission put a draft recommendation on the table on 4 September.
According to this progress report, at this stage, Member States have agreed on certain parameters such as the general measures to inform about the measures taken (24 hours before entry into force, if possible) or the type of data to be provided to the ECDC.
However, discussions remain complex on common sanitary measures such as a standard quarantine period or similar colour coding, as member countries wish to retain their prerogatives in this area. Yet the coordination of these measures still remains the aim of the German EU Council Presidency.
Link to progress report: https://bit.ly/2ROIq3o (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)