French president Emmanuel Macron has backed Angela Merkel’s call for a “co-ordinated” EU policy on travel restrictions which could see quarantines enforced on Britons entering the continent because of surging cases of the Delta variant of Covid-19.
Ms Merkel is pressing fellow EU leaders at a summit in Brussels to adopt a tougher common approach, after rocketing cases of the Delta variant in the UK put it at the top of the coronavirus table in Europe.
She was criticised by environment minister George Eustice, who said the move was unnecessary, despite the UK itself currently requiring 10-day isolation on arrival from all EU destinations.
And Boris Johnson appeared to hold out the prospect of foreign holidays this summer, saying that the successful vaccination programme offered a “real opportunity” to open up travel for those who have had both jabs.
Arriving at the two-day summit of the European Council, Ms Merkel said: “We are obviously concerned about the Delta variant.
Recommended
“I will lobby for a more co-ordinated approach, particularly with regard to entries from regions where virus variants abound.”
And Mr Macron echoed her comments, telling reporters: “We must all be vigilant because the much-talked-about Delta variant is coming, which spreads much more rapidly than the other variants and affects people who are not vaccinated or who only have had one dose.
”For me, one of the issues of discussion is to be really taking co-ordinated decisions in terms of opening of borders to third countries and on recognising vaccines because at this stage we have to limit this to the vaccines that have been approved by the European medical authority.”
New EU-wide rules being introduced next week will allow vaccinated people to move freely within the Schengen area, which covers most of continental Europe. But individual countries are able to set their own tougher rules and several, including Germany, Italy and Poland, are introducing quarantine for the British.
Ms Merkel told the German parliament on Wednesday: “In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine - and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see.”
Portuguese PM Antonio Costa defended his decision to open the country up to Britons.
“We imposed quarantines for countries where case numbers are above the threshold, which wasn’t the case with the UK,” said Mr Costa.
But he added that Merkel was “completely right” about the need to “co-ordinate regarding our external borders, since we have freedom of movement within the European Union”.
The comments came as the Balearic Islands, Madeira and Malta - all within the EU - were expected to be added later today to the government’s “green list”, allowing arrivals in England to avoid quarantine.
More significantly, Mr Johnson wants fully vaccinated Britons – and their children – to be able to travel to amber list countries - including France, Greece, Italy and Spain - without the need for isolation or expensive testing on return.
Hinting that move is not far away, Mr Johnson said: “I think that the real opportunity we all have now is to open up travel through the double jab.
“We’ve got more than 60 per cent of our population have now had two jabs, 83 per cent have had one jab. We’re really getting through it now.”
However, he added: “I’m not going to claim that this summer, for travel purposes, is going to be like any other summer. I don’t want to cast a pall over things but, as I said the other day, it will be different.”
The PM did not rule out a foreign holiday himself, saying: “My plans at this stage are at the unformed stage, I’m afraid. I’m certainly not ruling it in or ruling it out.”
Downing Street declined to protest over Ms Merkel’s initiative.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s obviously down to individual EU member states to decide on the rules governing their borders.
“We will continue to have discussions with our European partners on the reopening of international travel but we’re very confident our vaccination program is providing a way forward.”
