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Before the EU summit on the fight against the corona pandemic, Chancellor Helge Braun emphasized that border closings in Europe would be “the bad way to go”.

“It is therefore very important that the European Council takes precautions.

That we all now suppress the mutation as much as possible, ”said the CDU politician of Deutsche Welle.

Braun called on the EU countries to act “synchronously”.

But he also threatened in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”: Like Germany, all countries would have to take measures to drastically curb the infections and thus also prevent the mutation from spreading.

“If a neighboring country doesn't do that, then we can hardly protect ourselves from the mutation.

That is why even stricter entry rules at our internal borders cannot be avoided. ”But since nobody wants that, the EU must act together.

Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas spoke out against border controls in the event of too high numbers of infections.

"I believe that we must do everything we can to prevent border controls from coming back to 50 kilometers of traffic jams at the borders," said the SPD politician on ARD.

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The summit is about "very practical questions" such as how tens of thousands of commuters can be tested for the virus and how infections can be prevented from being introduced across the border.

It is possible to find sensible solutions for this without reintroducing border controls.

The spokeswoman for European policy for the Greens in the Bundestag, Franziska Brantner, also spoke out against border controls.

"In the fight against Covid, the EU countries are threatened to fall back into their own national mundane," said Brantner.

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) must work for European solutions at the summit meeting with her EU colleagues, said Brantner.

Common rules for traveling based on test strategies are important.

"Border controls are not a solution, they only make the situation in the border areas more difficult," emphasized the Green politician.

The EU countries should also tackle the production bottlenecks for corona vaccines together "in order to even come close to the targeted vaccination quota of 70 percent by the summer".

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France called on Wednesday to introduce "health checks" at the borders between member states.

Coronavirus mutations, which are spreading faster than the previous pathogen, are currently causing particular concern.

Against this background, Chancellor Merkel did not rule out border closings on Tuesday after the federal-state consultations on the pandemic.

Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said in a radio interview that it was wrong to close borders in the EU in 2020 and it would be even more wrong in 2021.

He stated that it was impractical to fight the pandemic this way.

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"Big losses for Germany" feared

The leader of the conservative EPP in the EU Parliament, Weber, warned of the economic damage caused by border closings within the EU.

“Border closings would mean major losses for German industry and trade.

In addition, the health system in the border areas would be presented with enormous challenges, ”said the CSU politician of the“ Rheinische Post ”.

That must be avoided at all costs.

"Border controls would also hinder the free movement of goods and lead to restrictions, especially for commuters," said Weber.

The heads of state and government must "urgently come to common solutions" at the EU summit.

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Merkel and her EU colleagues will discuss the further course by video conference on Thursday evening.

The focus is on containing the new corona variants.

This includes a systematic gene analysis of corona samples for mutated viruses.

Lists of areas where the mutations occur are also being discussed.

They could be the basis for stricter travel regulations.

On Wednesday, the member states agreed on the mutual recognition of the results of antigen tests.

The EU Commission advocates using these rapid tests to test travelers on a large scale.

In addition, the heads of state and government take stock of the vaccination campaigns that have been running since the end of December.