The European Union on Thursday lashed out at President Donald Trump’s “unilateral” decision to restrict travel from Europe to the United States over the coronavirus, saying that the illness doesn’t respect borders.
Trump has called the disease a “foreign virus” and claimed that U.S. clusters were “seeded” by European travelers. He announced that all European travel would be cut off, but U.S. officials later said that restrictions would apply only to most foreign citizens who have been in Europe’s passport-free travel zone at any point for 14 days prior to their arrival to the United States.
European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a joint statement:
The Coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action.
The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.
The European Union is taking strong action to limit the spread of the virus.
The so-called Schengen area comprises 26 countries including EU members France, Italy, German, Greece, Austria and Belgium, where the bloc has its headquarters, but also others like Switzerland, Norway and Iceland.
The restrictions announced by Trump don’t apply to the United Kingdom, where the number of confirmed cases has reached 460, or Ireland, which isn’t part of Schengen.
According to flight tracker FlightAware, around 400 flights cross the Atlantic from Europe to the United States each day.
