EC to review ‘proportionality’ of German travel ban for Portugal

The European Commission is to examine the proportionality of Germany’s decision to put Portugal on its list of ‘virus-variant’ areas of concern due to the prevalence of certain strains of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, travellers from which must quarantine on arrival, and may press Berlin to amend the measure if not, a source from the EU executive told Lusa.

“The European Commission has been notified and is examining whether Germany’s measures in relation to Portugal are proportional or not,” the source said.

The clarification comes after Germany last Friday classified Portugal as an area with variants of concern, namely due to the spread of the Delta strain first identified in India but which is already dominant among new cases in Portugal. The measure, which was imposed on Tuesday, under an activation of the EU brake mechanism regarding to address situations of concern that allows for the restriction of free movement, effectively bans most travel between the two countries.

At present, Germany only allows its people resident in that country or German nationals residing in Portugal to travel there from Portugal, and they still must quarantine for 14 days upon the arrival.

On Wednesday, at a news conference in Brussels, the EU’s justice commissioner, Didier Reynders, recalled that, faced with similar bans imposed in recent months, the commission “had to intervene to ask that travel bans be avoided” by putting pressure on countries.

“We proposed the adoption of other mechanisms, such as testing and quarantines, but advocating that bans or similar measures on travel should be avoided,” recalled the commissioner, when asked specifically about Germany’s restrictions relative to Portugal.

In those previous situations, he recalled, “we managed to make progress in several member states, starting with Germany a few months ago, but also Belgium, Sweden and Hungary, which have moved towards setting up a system without travel bans.

“As regards the German situation, we will verify exactly the information that has been communicated to us, but we will also have to compare this with a recommendation, adopted by the member states,” Reynders said, alluding to the common position agreed by the EU’s 27 member states two weeks ago.

In practice, while the commission could put pressure on Germany over the travel ban, Berlin always has the final say regarding its own border controls.

In mid-June, the Council of the EU adopted a recommendation for a coordinated approach to travel, proposing that people who had received at least one dose of a vaccine against Covid-19 or who were deemed to have recovered from the disease should not be subject to restrictive measures such as quarantines or testing.

Around the same time, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommended that travellers within the EU who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from Covid-19 should not be required to undergo testing or quarantine. These recommendations were made in view of the coming into force on Thursday of the EU digital Covid certificate – a free document that is to function similarly to a boarding pass for flights, with a QR code that can be easily read by electronic devices and which is in the person’s national language and in English.

Speaking on Wednesday about the coming into force of the certificate, Reynders called on member states to avoid “confusion and fragmentation” in their travel rules.

It is envisaged that the commission is only able to act – under EU infringement procedures – if member states refuse to issue the travel certificates, with the recognition of each individual document being a decision for national governments.