Europe Italy restricts entry to travelers from the European Union
The heads of State and Government of the 27 agreed on Thursday to "continue coordinating" in the responses against the pandemic, they conspired so that
"any restrictive measure is based on objective criteria and that it does not damage the functioning of the single market or disproportionately hinder the free movement "
and stressed the importance of having a common position on the validity of vaccination certificates without further delay. Their decisions, contained in the conclusions document, would have much more force, credibility and scope if the same people who sat at the table had not been applying disparate, contradictory, unilateral measures for weeks and without even bothering to follow the rules themselves set for them. at least inform the rest before each change.
The last European Council, held this Thursday in Brussels, was a mixed bag, with topics as disparate as Covid, energy, migration, the situation in Ukraine or Belarus, resilience of the Union or Security and Defense. Not to mention the mini Euro Summit, which was decisive five years ago but is now dispatched in 10 minutes and with four very vague ideas in writing. There were no big decisions to make, and no fights were expected, as happened with Poland just two months ago over the issue of the rule of law. The most that was expected was a somewhat more in-depth discussion in Energy, since the European Commission's proposals to reduce the electricity bill seem insufficient to Spain, France, Greece or Romania. And there was.
The substance was, a priori, in the
pandemic and external threats,
with
Brussels working on possible sanctions against Russia if there is any hostile act on the Ukrainian border.
In recent weeks, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and just 48 hours ago Italy unexpectedly announced unilateral measures to limit infections, such as a mandatory PCR for everyone who comes from abroad, even if they are double or triple vaccinated.
And
mandatory quarantines of up to five days for Europeans who travel negative but have not been vaccinated.
The EU has no competences in health matters.
The decisions are national and perfectly legal, but
They go against the spirit to which in theory everyone has joined.
Until now, tests were requested from some of those who came from outside the EU, but a growing number of governments have decided to go further, breaking the recommended common guidelines, ignoring the recommendations of community institutions and even without even bothering to notify the rest, who found out from the press about the new restrictions.
After almost two years of the pandemic, actions and errors are repeated that by now should be more than overcome.
There is no one way. Almost at the same time that the leaders arrived at the meeting room, France made public its restrictive measures for travelers from the United Kingdom, which not only involve tests carried out on the eve of the trips but also impose quarantines until the arrival of the results of a second exam already in Gallic territory.
On paper, everyone agrees that vaccines are the best and almost the only answer, but if something has characterized the pandemic, it is the succession of contradictory and counterintuitive responses. The best example is that
all the delegations attending the Summit, as well as the journalists who were going to cover it, had to do a PCR, something that the Belgian authorities do not require.
The institutions themselves making squeaky decisions and, furthermore, later opting for something difficult to understand: not asking any of the attendees for the results.
The last point of the sanitary conclusions refers precisely to the Covid certificate.
A few weeks ago, the European Commission proposed that the document have an expiration of nine months from the application of the second dose.
Half a year because it is approximately what the scientific consensus says immunity lasts plus an additional period for logistics.
After that time, the certificate would cease to be valid, a very clear way of encouraging the continental population to go for the booster dose as soon as possible.
That third puncture, at least for now, would no longer have an expiration date.
The Commission itself will adopt a delegated act as soon as possible (probably next week, although the work is piling up) to try to get that measure into force early next year.
Energy
"Insufficient".
This is how the President of the Government described the European measures to combat the price of electricity upon his arrival at the Community Summit and in that line they demonstrated from his team throughout the day.
The Commission only proposed this week that a voluntary mechanism be put in place so that those who want to jointly buy and store gas for emergencies can do so.
Something that Spain received positively but does not consider sufficient.
"It is essential that the EU takes action and that it takes it
more intensively and much faster,"
the president added.
The energy part was one of the most fought, with countries such as France, Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary joining Spain, demanding that the EU intervene more effectively in the emissions market.
That led to the vague conclusions drawn the day before having to be rewritten seeking clearer compromises.
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