EU Sets Up 'Traffic Light' Map to Tackle COVID-19 Travel Chaos

Brussels (dpa) - The 27 EU countries have agreed on a common map for coronavirus-related travel restrictions, with regions marked green, orange or red depending on the intensity of coronavirus transmission.

Countries are to be labelled red if they report more than 50 infections per 100,000 residents over the previous two weeks and if at least 4 per cent of coronavirus tests are positive. They will also be red if the number of new cases per 100,000 over 14 days surpasses the 150 mark, without reference to the percentage of positive tests.

The new system was approved by European affairs ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday and adds two further levels - orange and green - for countries with lower infection rates.

Those marked green should not be subject to travel restrictions under the new framework, which is non-binding and leaves member states a lot of leeway to impose their own measures in the different zones.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic earlier this year, EU countries have imposed a patchwork of entry restrictions that led to confusion across the continent about what rules apply.

While governments agreed on common standards for risk assessment, it remains up to each country to decide on testing, quarantine requirements and entry restrictions.

The European Commission, which proposed setting up a unified system for the European Union's open-border travel area in September, welcomed the development as a way "to bring more order to a currently confusing situation."

But a senior EU official expressed disappointment on Monday that the plan allows member states free hand to apply restrictions to orange zones, unlike the original commission proposal.

Three aviation lobbies sharply criticized the EU compromise in a joint statement, arguing that it will not revive travel because it does not replace quarantines with testing requirements, and because it does not really harmonize national travel restrictions.

"These shortcomings are a political failure," said the international airline group IATA, the Airlines for Europe lobby and ACI Europe, which represents airports.

Criticism also came from member states Austria and Luxembourg on Tuesday.

Most regions of Europe are already classed red under the system, Austria's EU Minister Karoline Edtstadler pointed out, with no higher classification available.

It is crucial to protect citizens health while also preserving freedom of movement, she added. That included preserving some form of tourism over the coming colder months.

In a similar vein, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said it was "quite absurd" that one European country would now classify the other as a risk area.

———

Visit Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) at www.dpa.de/English.82.0.html

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.