Ahead of the virtual meeting of EU leaders on Thursday 29 October, the European Commission presented on Wednesday 28 October a package of measures to stem the resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to a general communication, it adopted a draft recommendation on screening, including antigenic tests, and several measures to reduce taxation on essential products.
“The rise in Covid-19 infection rates across Europe is very alarming. Decisive immediate action is needed for Europe”, commented Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
These measures, announced at a time when the health situation in Europe is steadily worsening, will feed into the videoconference that EU Heads of State and Government will hold late Thursday afternoon, as announced at their last meeting in Brussels (see EUROPE 12583/1).
According to a blog post published by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, the EU27’s discussion will focus on testing and tracing as well as vaccines. It could also revolve around mutual assistance between Member States.
Testing: new hope with antigenic tests
The Commission is proposing several measures on testing , in addition to a first initiative validated by the Health Security Committee in September (see EUROPE 12563/7).
In its recommendation, the European institution recalls that testing is one of the most effective tools to reduce the spread of the virus and to consider reducing the duration of quarantine. It recalls the objective of carrying out tests within 24 hours and encourages Member States to carry out “stress tests”.
In view of the shortage of PCR tests, for which it had launched a common public procurement in the spring (in which 20 Member States participated), the Commission recommends turning to faster and cheaper antigen detection tests (see EUROPE 12589/2). It undertakes to make a direct purchase of such tests for an amount of €100 million (from the Emergency Support Instrument) and to complement it with a new common public procurement contract to provide a second route. It will also reference information on rapid antigenic tests and the results of validation studies as they become available in the EU.
Antigen testing will also be at the heart of the EU summit. According to one European official, the EU27 will consider how best to act collectively on rapid tests and how best to recognise their results. They will discuss a common approach to the deployment and use of such tests, potentially considering common performance thresholds as well as better monitoring and controls once the tests are deployed.
Vaccines, the other major topic of the virtual summit
The European Commission is also addressing the issue of vaccines. Without making any real announcement, it recalls its previous communications of June and October (see EUROPE 12508/4, 12582/7).
However, it provides more details on the advance purchase agreements it has signed with AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-GSK to pre-book doses of their candidate vaccine, if approved. Thus, it indicates that it has already disbursed €1.02 billion for the three contracts and is ready to disburse a further €1.45 billion in total for the other manufacturers with whom it has so far concluded exploratory discussions.
“We must absolutely avoid any chaos. We need to define criteria for distribution among European countries. Priority groups to which vaccines should be administered should also be established. The most vulnerable (the elderly, the chronically ill, etc.) and health workers seem to be obvious priorities. It still needs to be decided and implemented together”, said the President of the European Council.
Taxation, freedom of movement and quarantine
On taxation, the Commission is submitting a draft decision to exempt hospitals and doctors from paying VAT on vaccines and test kits used in the fight against the pandemic. It is also presenting a draft directive to extend the temporary suspension of customs duties and VAT on imports of medical equipment from non-Member States through 30 April 2021. This suspension would normally have ended on 31 October (see EUROPE 12534/15).
On free movement, the Commission announced the launch in November of a pilot project establishing a common digital passenger location form, referred to in the 13 October recommendation on travel restrictions in the Member States (see EUROPE 12580/6).
While the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) now publishes maps for the common identification of areas at risk, the Commission has reminded Member States of the need for high-quality information on free movement to be shared, and that it can arrive sufficiently in advance.
On quarantine periods, the general communication states that the ECDC will give its opinion in November.
Have the lessons been learned?
Despite these efforts, the European Union’s management of the epidemic is coming under increasing criticism, as Member States are once again moving in a piecemeal fashion towards lockdown.
Asked about the lack of cooperation shown so far by the Member States, the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, acknowledged that she had repeatedly asked them to coordinate better. However, she added, “I’m opposed to a blame game. We’ve all learnt, improved, made experiences.”
On the likelihood of the holiday season being cancelled due to lockdown, she said, “This year, Christmas will be different.” “This will be an opportunity to develop a Christmas of solidarity”, added her special advisor, Peter Piot. For him, one of the main lessons of the summer is that “if you relax too early, you will head into a third wave.”
See the general communication (https://bit.ly/2HDMyBs ), the draft recommendation on screening (https://bit.ly/3oB8rlW ) and the draft decision on taxation (https://bit.ly/35LGPSo ) (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean, with Solenn Paulic)