Internal border control measures “do not stop the virus, but they do considerable damage to the Internal Market”, said the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at a press briefing on Wednesday 17 February, calling on the Member States to find the right “balance” between protecting the health of citizens and protecting free movement and the Internal Market.
The President was speaking the day after Commissioner Didier Reynders and Commissioner Ylva Johansson had sent a letter to EU Member States asking them to comply with the recommendations adopted, in particular, to avoid the reintroduction of internal border controls (see EUROPE 12659/9).
Citing the episode of spring 2020 when 17 Member States had introduced such measures, Ms von der Leyen stressed that this had helped lead the Member States to coordinate.
However, while only four Member States had measures in place in relation to Covid-19 at Christmas,”we’ve gone back to nine” countries.
For the President, at this stage, it is “more important to look at certain regions and epidemiological situations” than to re-establish unilateral measures. “It is important to do everything possible to discourage citizens from going into these dark red areas” and this is the recommendation that the EU27 had adopted. “I remind them that closing borders does not stop the virus, but creates disruptions in the Internal Market”, she insisted.
According to the Commission’s website, eight Member States (Belgium, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Hungary, Finland and Denmark) have notified controls in relation to Covid-19 at this stage, until the end of February and until May for Denmark. Norway has also notified controls of this type.
Link to the notifications: http://bit.ly/3djbvzW (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)