BRUSSELS – European Union nations on Wednesday refine a coordinated response to China’s COVID-19 crisis, focusing on travel restrictions that would anger both Beijing and the global airline industry.
China has already vehemently denied travel restrictions some EU countries have begun imposing, warning of “countermeasures” should such measures be expanded in the coming days.
On Wednesday, European Commission spokesman Tim McPhie said that the “overwhelming majority of countries are in favor of testing passengers from China before departure. EU countries sought an official position on the matter later in the day.
The Chinese government and European health experts have said there is no urgent need for blanket travel restrictions as the Chinese-originated coronavirus variants are already widespread in Europe.
On Wednesday, the International Air Transport Association, which represents around 300 airlines worldwide, lent its powerful voice to the protests.
“It is extremely disappointing to see this knee-jerk reintroduction of measures that have proven ineffective over the past three years,” said IATA Director-General Willie Walsh.
“Research conducted around the arrival of the Omicron variant concluded that imposing travel restrictions had no impact on the peak spread of infection. Restrictions delayed that peak by a few days at most,” Walsh said.
After threatening countermeasures on Tuesday, Chinese government spokesman Mao Ning said on Wednesday, “We sincerely hope that all parties will focus on fighting the epidemic itself and avoid politicizing COVID.”
Still, the EU appears keen to put in place some sort of joint action to ensure incoming passengers from China don’t carry potential new variants onto the continent. Sweden, which holds the EU Council Presidency, said in a statement that “travelers from China need to be prepared for short-term decisions”.
Fearing being caught off guard like at the start of the global pandemic in early 2020, the EU’s Integrated Political Crisis Response Group is now due to make a decision later on Wednesday.
In addition to pre-flight testing, EU nations are likely to agree on special testing of wastewater on planes departing from China to see if it contains dangerous variants not yet common on the continent.
Over the past week, EU countries have responded to the crisis in China with a chaotic cascade of national measures, ignoring an earlier pledge to act as one before anything else.
Italy was the first EU member to mandate coronavirus testing for passengers flying from China, but France and Spain quickly followed with measures of their own.
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