EU leaders were yesterday set to hold their second summit in two weeks in a fresh attempt to forge a joint response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Europe takes over from China as the front line in the fight against a disease claiming thousands of lives.
The virus case count in Europe has climbed to more than 50,000 and more than 2,000 people have died. The inexorable spread of the disease has roiled markets and sown public fear, but nervous governments have introduced quick-fix measures — partial border closures or quarantine — with little consultation.
After Italy, ground zero in Europe’s battle with COVID-19, Spain and now France have imposed lockdowns, confining people to their homes except for urgent business, such as buying food or heading to any hospital that might still have the capacity to treat them.
Photo: Reuters
Seven countries have informed the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, that they have reintroduced ID checks inside Europe’s passport-free Schengen Area. Among them are Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, which all took unilateral action to halt the influx of migrants in 2015.
Indeed, it is a similar challenge that leaders are grappling with as they confront the coronavirus — how to ensure that the fraying solidarity among partners in the same European club does not completely unravel as the crisis deepens.
Asked on Monday whether Europe can ever return to real ID-check free travel after this, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “I hope so, but it’s been shown that coordination didn’t work well everywhere the way one would have hoped.”
The main problem confronting the leaders, as they meet in a virtual online videoconference from their offices in the bloc’s 27 capitals, is to halt the arrival of more virus cases, coordinate any border closures and guarantee that vital medical equipment and food can reach those in need.
They are expected to endorse a 30-day travel ban on people wanting to come to Europe for tourism or non-essential business. Long-term EU residents, diplomats and members of European families would be exempt. Healthcare and transport workers could escape the ban, too.
Separately, so-called “green lanes” would be set up at the internal borders of the 26 Schengen countries, allowing fast-track access for trucks ferrying essential supplies to defy the traffic jams that have begun forming at some crossing points.
EU Council President Charles Michel, who was to chair the summit, said the aim was “to reduce unnecessary movement, but at the same time to ensure the movement of merchandise, of goods, so that we can guarantee as much as possible the integrity of the single market, guarantee the deliveries that are needed.”
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