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Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - The EU has announced the resumption of travel to Europe from outside its borders will not be phased in until after internal restrictions made necessary by the coronavirus are lifted, a process that is likely to last later into 2020.
Presenting a range of measures meant as roadmap for an orderly removal of stringent lockdown restrictions in place across the 27 member states, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Europe would not return to business as usual until a vaccine against Covid-19 became available.
In the meantime, she said any easing of restrictions could only be temporary as it would “unavoidably” create a spike in new cases.
About 80,000 people have died in Europe from Covid-19 - two-thirds of the global toll - according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
Ms Von der Leyen explained the EU would gradually lift travel and internal border-crossing restrictions, starting with journeys “between areas with comparably low levels of risk”.
In a press conference on Wednesday she explained, for example, that borders would have to be closely monitored in areas were one side had re-opened but the other still remained under lockdown measures. If managed incorrectly an influx of travel over borders could again risk a resurgence of cases.
The opening of Europe’s external borders would have to come in a later, second phase the European Commission said, with each nation being judged on the state of its own coronavirus situation before travel could resume.
With some European nations under lockdown restrictions for over a month, countries like Austria and Denmark, which have been spared the brunt of the pandemic, have cautiously relaxed measures.
Health staff wear protective equipment to help stop the spread of the coronavirus outside the Menara City One condominium under a lockdown in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. AP Photo
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Brazilian 99-year-old former WWII combatant Ermando Armelino Piveta gestures as he leaves the Armed Forces Hospital, after being treated for the coronavirus disease in Brasilia, Brazil. Reuters
US President Donald Trump answers questions during the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, DC. REUTERS
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A woman receives free rice in Hanoi, Vietnam. EPA
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A worker from the railway cleaning services disinfects a grip bar in a train wagon in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain. EPA
The EU has said it will only look to ease the emergency measures once infections have decreased significantly for a sustained period of time, hospitals have enough beds and large-scale capacity for testing to monitor the spread of the virus had been rolled out.
Brussels is looking to redeem itself with its plan to reopen Europe. The 27-member bloc is deeply concerned about the damage that could be done if each EU nation charts its own course, given the panic that ensued after the pandemic first spread in Italy, with unannounced border closures that sparked massive traffic jams and export bans that deprived hard-hit countries of medical equipment.
The EU was even criticised over its initial rollout of its exit strategy which European capitals said gave completely the wrong message while they were trying to get millions of citizens to stay at home.
"This is not - it is not - a signal that confinement, containment measures can be lifted as of now," Ms Von der Leyen told reporters on Wednesday.
Updated: April 15, 2020 08:54 PM
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