The EU on Friday urged member countries to put health screening procedures in place at their borders to slow the spread of COVID-19, but said they must coordinate so that people can quickly receive the medical care they need.
With Italy reporting the most cases and deaths anywhere in the world except China, the pandemic is increasingly wearing on the EU’s cherished core principle, which envisions a border-free Europe where citizens can freely live, work and travel.
Countries that border Italy, including Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland, have moved to reintroduce border controls and restrict traffic from outside.
Photo: AP
However, several other EU nations, including Poland, Slovakia and Cyprus, announced restrictions that go far beyond travelers from Italy.
Poland’s prime minister said that starting at midnight yesterday, the country’s borders with all its neighbors would be closed and all foreigners denied entry unless they lived in Poland or had personal ties there.
Non-citizens who are let in would be quarantined for 14 days.
Slovakia took similar action.
Denmark on Friday announced that it would shut its borders to most foreign visitors for a month starting yesterday.
An entry ban on foreign nationals in Cyprus only excludes European citizens if they live or work on the island.
More than 22,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed across Europe, and nearly 1,300 people with the virus have died.
The EU’s executive commission recommended coordinated border health screenings as a way to address infections.
“We’ve seen travel bans and controls being put in place in a number of member states,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. “Certain controls may be justified, but general travel bans are not seen as being the most effective by the World Health Organization. Moreover, they have a strong social and economic impact. They disrupt people’s lives and business across the borders.”
To avoid a patchwork of national policies that cause economic harm and are ineffective in guarding public health, “any measure that is taken must be proportionate” and coordinated with Brussels, she said.
Preliminary checks for signs of infection could be done at borders between the 26 nations that make up the passport-free Schengen area, but also at the EU’s external borders and within individual countries, Von der Leyen said.
“Member states, especially neighboring ones, need to work very closely together,” Von der Leyen said. “In this way, and it’s the only way, we can make sure that our citizens receive the healthcare that they need ... wherever they are.”
The European Commission led by von der Leyen polices the Schengen area’s rules, but individual countries are responsible for their own health and public safety policies.
“The problem is on different levels in different countries,” Swedish Minister of the Interior Mikael Damberg told reporters. “We hope that all countries that take new measures also inform other European countries.”
“The transportation system must work when it comes to food and to healthcare materials and these kinds of things that are important to all European countries so that we don’t make problems for each other handling the crisis,” Damberg said.
Croatian Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, who is chairing the talks because his country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said: “This crisis shows that as a European Union we need to have models to act in a more coordinated way.”
“If we are acting in one way, it would be much better for all of us,” he said.
Additional reporting by Reuters
The pledge by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi to “work, work, work, work and work” for her country has been named the catchphrase of the year, recognizing the effort Japan’s first female leader had to make to reach the top. Takaichi uttered the phrase in October when she was elected as head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). Many were initially as worried about her work ethic as supportive of her enthusiasm. In a country notorious for long working hours, especially for working women who are also burdened with homemaking and caregiving, overwork is a sensitive topic. The recognition triggered a
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
‘HEART IS ACHING’: Lee appeared to baffle many when he said he had never heard of six South Koreans being held in North Korea, drawing criticism from the families South Korean President Lee Jae-myung yesterday said he was weighing a possible apology to North Korea over suspicions that his ousted conservative predecessor intentionally sought to raise military tensions between the war-divided rivals in the buildup to his brief martial law declaration in December last year. Speaking to reporters on the first anniversary of imprisoned former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol’s ill-fated power grab, Lee — a liberal who won a snap presidential election following Yoon’s removal from office in April — stressed his desire to repair ties with Pyongyang. A special prosecutor last month indicted Yoon and two of his top
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RSS