As announced on 21 January (see EUROPE 12641/1), the European Commission proposed to Member States on Monday 25 January to tighten travel conditions for non-essential travel throughout the EU by creating a new category of high-risk areas from which it would be imperative to require travellers to pass a negative PCR test before returning and to observe a strict quarantine on their return.
Essential travellers from non-Member States, i.e. workers in certain occupational categories allowed to travel without restrictions thus far, should also have to provide a negative PCR test within 72 hours before the trip, with relaxations for EU residents.
More specifically, the Commissioners for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, and Justice, Didier Reynders, tabled a revision of the recommendation adopted in October regarding non-essential travel restrictions in the EU (see EUROPE 12580/6) and an update of the common list of non-Member States whose nationals can travel to the EU without restrictions, now reduced to 8 countries (see EUROPE 12624/18).
The two officials, who are expected to forward these proposals to the experts from the Member States meeting in the IPCR and then to the national ambassadors to the EU, said that there was obviously a need to act quickly to counter “travel-related contamination” and prevent the spread of variants.
And to achieve this, the basic principle should be the following: there should be no testing or quarantine requirements on return from green zones according to the European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC) mapping, but testing and quarantine must be done for orange and red zones. And this will now have to be mandatory for dark red areas, the Commission explained.
To determine this category, the Commission proposes an incidence rate of more than 500 cases/100,000 inhabitants over the last 2 weeks.
The Commission also wants to preserve the mobility of essential and frontier workers. For these people who often have to cross intra-European borders, quarantines should be optional and the frequency of PCR testing requirements adapted to the nature of the workers.
At present, around ten areas of the EU can be considered ‘dark red’, the two officials said.
‘PLF’ compulsory everywhere
Another proposal made on Monday for intra-EU travellers: the obligation to fill in a Passengers locator form, as Belgium is doing and as a small handful of countries are currently trying out. The Commissioner wants to make it a “compulsory” tool and this form, to be completed 48 hours before returning to one’s country of residence or going to another, will have to be quickly developed in all Member States.
Discourage travel for pleasure
Without banning it, Mrs Johansson and Mr Reynders have also, in turn, “strongly discouraged” non-essential travel, calling on Member States to take the necessary measures to dissuade people from going on holiday and ending up in areas with a high population mix.
The Commission’s proposals are not intended to ban non-essential travel, a power it does not have, but they are intended to encourage “Member States to take coherent measures” in relation to neighbouring countries, but also “within their territory”, they explained.
While the Belgian government announced on 22 January that it was banning leisure stays in Belgium until 1 March, the Commission refused to say on Monday whether this decision was illegal. Member States “can go further than our recommendations”, said Didier Reynders, but “they have to be well explained and justified”. Judicial review can be carried out by the authorities of the country, he added, seeming to say that the Commission has no legal means on these types of prohibitions. The Belgian government has made provisions for fines in case of non-compliance, and each trip out of the country during this period must be strictly motivated by work or serious personal circumstances.
Link to the proposals: https://bit.ly/2Yai2UD (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)