Member States’ ambassadors to the EU could take up this week, perhaps Friday 9 October, the proposal for an EU Council Recommendation on the coordination of national measures against Covid-19 (see EUROPE 12553/1) and in turn allow the European Affairs Ministers, meeting on 13 October, to return to the subject.
The German EU Council Presidency had submitted a compromise text to the Member States at a meeting of the IPCR, the European crisis response mechanism, on Monday 5 October. On the basis of these exchanges, a new text was to be prepared and potentially represented later this week in the CPIR with a potential discussion on 9 October in the Committee of Permanent Representatives (Coreper), a source reported on Tuesday.
In the text submitted to the meeting on 5 October, the German Presidency took particular care to strengthen the references to Member States’ competences in the area of health and their ability to take measures to restrict freedom of movement.
On the quarantine measures imposed on the return of certain areas, the text continues to call for further work over time.
Colour-coded, the states a little less strict
With regard to colour coding, the text slightly relaxes the values chosen by the Commission. Thus, a zone must be marked: - in green if the cumulative 14-day case notification rate is less than 25 and the positive rate of infection tests is less than 4% (not 3% as proposed by the Commission); - orange if the cumulative 14-day case reporting rate for Covid-19 is less than 50 but the test positivity rate is 4% or more, or if the cumulative 14-day case reporting rate is between 25 and 150 but the test positivity rate for infection is less than 4%; - in red if the cumulative 14-day infection notification rate is 50 or more and the positive test positivity rate for the infection is 4% or more or if the cumulative 14-day infection notification rate is greater than 150 per 100,000 population; - in grey if the available information is not sufficient or if the notification rate of tests is less than or equal to 350 tests per 100 000 inhabitants.
Finally, the text takes up the idea of developing a common European form for locating travellers.
The general rule of prior information on the restriction measures decided upon should be 24 hours, confirms the text, with flexibility to be allowed to deal with epidemiological emergencies.
Link to text: https://bit.ly/2GmNfPu (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)