At a virtual summit, organized on Thursday 25 February, European leaders will try to display a common strategy in the face of the threat of Covid-19 variants, despite uncoordinated movement restrictions and sharp differences over the future "passport vaccine ".

The leaders of the 27 meet by videoconference from 2 p.m. GMT at a time when the number of contaminations is struggling to decrease on the continent, due to sluggish vaccination campaigns and the rise of the British and South African variants.

Concerned, ten European Union (EU) countries have adopted restrictions on their borders.

The European Commission has summoned six of them to explain themselves on the movement restrictions that it considers disproportionate, fearing dysfunctions of production chains.

Among them are Belgium, which prohibits all non-essential travel, and Germany, which filters crossings with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Austrian Tyrol.

"The coordination is complicated because for the leaders, the priority is to protect their population", observes a senior European official, who expects "animated discussions".

The 27 had initially promised to adopt only "proportionate" and "non-discriminatory" measures.

But the variants have changed the situation.

The latter "arouse a legitimate nervousness and prudence: for some governments, the reflex - sometimes the most convenient - is to close the borders", recognizes a diplomat, for whom the summit must "remind the rules that we is collectively donated ".

European vaccination certificate

According to a draft conclusions, consulted by AFP, European leaders plan to reaffirm that "the unhindered flow of goods and services within the single market must be guaranteed".

However, nothing should be decided on a European vaccination certificate, intended to facilitate travel within the EU, according to corroborating sources.

Especially at a time when vaccination campaigns remain slowed down by failed laboratory deliveries - even if Brussels still plans to vaccinate 70% of the adult EU population by mid-September.

To mention this certificate when only 4.2% of Europeans have received at least one dose has "no meaning", scolds a diplomat.

And to note that it is not yet established that being vaccinated prevents infecting other people.

"All the states agree to work on a document that will ensure that you have been vaccinated (...) Some, very dependent on tourism, want to make it a means of facilitating the coming of visitors this summer", but "he we have to move forward together, ”said another diplomat.

Vaccine supply from third countries

Greece is pleading in particular for an accelerated implementation, while Paris and Berlin are worried about widening the gulf between a privileged minority and the others.

The leaders could be satisfied to "call for pursuing a common approach", by promising "to return to this subject".

Greece and Cyprus, however, have already concluded, each on their own, a tourist agreement with Israel allowing their vaccinated citizens to travel without restriction, thanks to a "green passport".

As proof of the key role of vaccination campaigns in ending the pandemic, a large-scale study in Israel confirmed on Wednesday the effectiveness of Pfizer's vaccine in real conditions, so far only proven by clinical trials.

In other good news, the American authorities have confirmed the effectiveness of the single-dose remedy from Johnson & Johnson, including against variants.

EU Heads of State and Government will also look into the supply of vaccines to third countries: French President Emmanuel Macron has therefore proposed that Europe and the United States deliver "as quickly as possible" 13 million doses of vaccines to Africa for the continent to vaccinate its 6.5 million caregivers.

In Brussels, it is recalled that Member States are free, on a voluntary basis, to donate their doses to other countries - alongside the international Covax system supported by the EU and which has just delivered its first free vaccines to Ghana.

But "to promise wonders to third countries while we fail to accelerate the vaccination of our own populations, it is unthinkable", tempers a diplomat.

With AFP

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