eu consultationFree travel through Europe must remain, despite the high infection rates in many countries. The condition is that everyone has received a booster shot within nine months of their last injection.
That is roughly the outcome of Tuesday’s Brussels meeting between the 27 EU health ministers. “Out together, at home together. It is not wise for countries to have their own travel rules,” said Hugo de Jonge afterwards.
The new rules are likely to come into effect in February. De Jonge promised that the booster shot in the Netherlands will be available on time for everyone.
Holidays
The minister said afterwards that he found it important that travel for those who have been adequately vaccinated remains possible: “People want to know whether they can go on holiday or not.” With the existing corona pass, this will be difficult because more and more countries are deciding on additional rules on their own and there has therefore been no joint pass for weeks.
That is precisely why the European Commission presented proposals on 25 November to streamline things again.
The protection of the first injections starts to decrease after six months. Not all Member States immediately have enough vaccines or injection capacity for a quick booster shot. Slovenian health minister Janez Poklukar, who will chair the council until January 1, told this site afterwards that he hopes to reach an agreement on the validity period this month, before his French colleague takes over the hammer.
Out together, at home together. It is not wise for countries to have their own travel rules
working together
Hugo de Jonge made a firm plea in the council for working together. That should not be limited to the corona pass, he also wants a mandatory PCR test for everyone who wants to travel to Europe. That too still has to be decided at a later date, but several ministers have already supported him.
At the start of the deliberation, EU Health Commissioner Kyriakides urged all Member States to speed up vaccinations. “Vaccination and boosting are the only way out.” Currently, 66 percent of the European population is vaccinated and 77 percent of the adult European population.
The vaccination percentages have to be increased with the new, much more contagious variants. Many ministers said they are now also vaccinating, or preparing to vaccinate children.
‘All in the same boat’
“Public health remains national policy,” said Minister De Jonge, despite his pleas to achieve as much coordination as possible. “We are all in the same boat. A few months ago, no one expected that we would be in this situation again, and our advisers had not foreseen that scenario either.”
The experts who addressed the ministers in Brussels expressed their ‘serious concern’ now that the infections are spreading and much is still unknown about the omikron variant. “The situation is already serious without omikron. But we know that acting quickly helps. And that vaccinated people have considerably better protection.”
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