America out, China in as EU looks to reopen external borders
Brussels wants to restart limited global travel from
July 1.
By FLORIAN
EDER, SAIM SAEED AND JACOPO BARIGAZZI 6/23/20, 9:03 PM CET Updated 6/24/20,
1:16 AM CET
EU diplomats are considering plans that would see only
a limited number of countries placed on a safe list to restart flights with the
EU
Travelers from the U.S. and Brazil could be prevented
from entering the EU when the bloc’s external borders are reopened, according
to plans under discussion in Brussels.
As the bloc
seeks to lift travel restrictions at its borders from July 1, EU diplomats are
considering plans that would see only a limited number of countries placed on a
safe list to restart flights with the EU — threatening tensions with some of
the bloc’s biggest global partners.
EU
ambassadors will on Wednesday meet to discuss criteria for countries to be
allowed to restart travel to Europe. That’s expected to include a requirement
that countries must have an infection rate below the EU’s average to be on the
list.
As things
stand, that would prevent travel from a range of countries, including the U.S.,
Brazil and North Macedonia, while travel to and from China would be permitted.
Travel with around 50 countries could be restarted, according to preliminary
lists seen by POLITICO.
Donald
Trump has suggested the U.S. slow down its testing, which would cut the number
of positive cases in his country by default. “By having more tests, we find
more cases,” he said Tuesday. But the government's top infectious disease
expert said the same day that the U.S. president had not ordered a slow down of
coronavirus testing.
The
European Commission two weeks ago set out a plan to reopen the bloc’s external
borders, stressing that EU member countries “should agree on a common list of
non-EU countries for which travel restrictions can be lifted as of 1 July, to
be reviewed on a regular basis.”
The criteria
to be used — and the countries covered — is the subject of fierce ongoing
negotiation.
Diplomats
agree one of the main criteria should be an incidence rate close to or below
that across the EU, which currently stands at an average of 16 cases per
100,000 inhabitants.
However, a
number of capitals are pushing for other data to be taken into account as well.
That could include testing rates, the number of patients in intensive care or
countries’ preparedness, for example in terms of hospital facilities — as well
as the reliability of the data.
“One of the
problems is reciprocity,” added one diplomat: namely whether it should play a
role in the decision, and if so whether that should count as more relevant than
the incidence rate.
There’s
also tension over the U.K., which still has a comparatively high rate among European
countries. However, under the terms of the Brexit transition agreement, London
is still considered part of the EU until December 31, meaning it wouldn’t be
included in the list of third countries, said a second diplomat.
Complicating
the picture is the fact that not all the borders within the EU’s free-travel
Schengen zone have yet reopened. If internal borders aren’t fully open before
July 1 but people from third countries are let in, “this will be chaotic,” said
a third diplomat.
Home
Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson told capitals earlier this month they must
drop internal border restrictions to be ready to figure out a joint approach to
restarting global travel. Brussels is desperate to avoid a messy global opening
that results in a new round of border closures.
Two lists
drawn up by the Croatian presidency of the Council of the EU mark out countries
that have new cases of the virus at a rate equal to or below the EU’s. The
first includes 47 countries with an infection rate below 16 cases per 100,000
people. The second, which covers a range of 16-20 per 100,000, lists 54
countries.
China,
Vietnam and Australia are on both lists, while Canada, Turkey and Egypt are
only included in the wider bracket.
Earlier
this month, the Commission explicitly outlined the Western Balkans as a region
it wanted to reopen travel to at the earliest possibility. However, the lists
show a complicated picture since Albania and Kosovo have a higher infection
rate than the EU average. In Serbia and Bosnia, the infection rate is lower,
but it is increasing.
The process
will be “evidence-based and health-driven,” said Olivier Jankovec, director
general at ACI-Europe, a lobby group for airports. “I don’t think the EU can
afford to prioritize anything other than evidence-based criteria because the
risks are just too high.”
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