EU struggles to formulate common approach to travel as coronavirus cases spike around the continent

The EU finds itself in a situation reminiscent of that experienced back in March at the onset of the pandemic, with national capitals failing to coordinate national health policies and the EU struggling to come up with one coordinated response. With a second wave of infections surging across Europe, EU member countries have been for the past four weeks at loggerheads over a modest European Commission proposal to harmonize travel guidelines, including testing and quarantine recommendations.

While the extension of the differences is not as wide as March, when authorities unilaterally shut borders at each other, Member States have failed to agree on basic issues such as how long a person should self-isolate for after potential exposure to COVID-19.

Later this week, according to Politico.eu, EU ambassadors are finally expected to vote on a compromise proposal regarding the travel negotiations brokered by the German presidency of the Council of the EU, after weeks of debate over seemingly trivial matters.

The points of disagreement had included whether national governments should favor mandatory testing over quarantine for travelers arriving from higher-risk zones — as the Commission originally proposed and the aviation industry has clamored for — or if that decision should be left to national capitals.

However, most of the basic decisions, including rules on wearing of masks, the limit of people that may gather together in groups, or whether schools or businesses should close — remain entirely in the hands of national, regional and sometimes local health authorities.

The Commission’s original proposal, put forward last month, called for imposing quaranting only on travelers arriving from zones designated as red, for the highest risk, or grey, indicating a lack of sufficient data. The German presidency proposal would also allow restrictions on travelers arriving from medium-risk orange zones. But people moving between green zones would be assured unrestricted passage.

The European Center for Disease Control (ECDC) recommendation is generally for a 14-day quarantine if isolation is necessary, with the period shortened potentially by confirmed negative test results. The Commission, however, pushed for a test to replace the need to quarantine. In response, the ECDC has said that replacing quarantine with a single test is scientifically inadvisable, because the virus cannot be detected during incubation.