EU Commission asks six member states to ease Covid-19 border restrictions
The European Commission asked six member states on Tuesday to curb their Covid-19 restrictions regarding borders and international travel.
Brussels is seeking to enforce a coordinated approach to managing the movement of goods but above all people within the bloc’s borders.
According to Reuters, the EU executive said it had given Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary and Sweden 10 days to justify restrictions, which Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said had “gone too far”.
Germany introduced checks on its frontiers with the Czech Republic and Austria and was in talks with France to do the same on their shared border.
Such measures have resulted in long queues of trucks on Germany's borders.
A European Commission spokesman said that the bloc risked “fragmentation and disruptions to free movement and to supply chains - something we have witnessed again the past weeks.”
Michael Roth, Europe Minister for Germany, defended Berlin’s actions.
“These measures obviously put a massive strain on border regions [...] but the protection of our citizens is paramount,” he said before the talks with the EU.