European Union member states have failed to reach an agreement over a unified approach to the Omicron variant during a summit in Brussels, as surging Covid cases spark new restrictions in some nations.
While the EU introduced a bloc-wide Covid certificate in July in a bid to restart travel freely across member states, the resurgence of coronavirus due to the Omicron variant has led some nations to impose strict travel measures.
Greece, Ireland, and Portugal have all recently announced safety measures for individuals arriving from EU member states, as they seek to limit the spread of Covid across the continent. Italy is set to join them in the coming days, requiring all arrivals to show a negative test on arrival, regardless of vaccination status.
The four nations acted despite the EU’s 27 member states being in the midst of a debate about how to roll out a coordinated bloc-wide travel policy that limits the spread of the virus without hampering free movement.
Ahead of the EU leaders’ summit on Thursday, Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, stated that “closing borders is in any case not the solution” to combating Omicron. Latvian leader Krisjanis Karins agreed that freedom of travel across the EU must not be impacted.
The summit concluded that any domestic restrictions imposed by member states should be done in a coordinated manner that does not “disproportionately hamper free movement.”
The indecision among EU nations comes after the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control announced that it believes Omicron is more transmissible and likely to become the dominant Covid strain in Europe within the first two months of 2022.
The agency stopped short of calling for travel restrictions, citing how the variant was now being transmitted locally in most member states.