Germany closes borders amid EU criticism

KIEFERSFELDEN: Germany partially closed its borders with the Czech Republic and Austria’s Tyrol on Sunday over a troubling surge in coronavirus mutations, drawing a swit rebuke from the European Union (EU).

A thousand police officers have been mobilised to ensure strict border checks, which recall the much-criticised early days of the pandemic when EU countries hastily closed their frontiers to each other.

At the Kiefersfelden crossing in southern Bavaria, officers in yellow high-visibility vests and wearing balaclavas to stave off the chill in -15°C, meticulously stopped each vehicle coming from Austria.

Under the new rules, in place until Feb.17, only Germans or non-german residents are allowed to enter, and they must provide a recent negative coronavirus test.

Some exceptions are allowed for essential workers in sectors such as health and transport, as well as for urgent humanitarian reasons, the interior ministry has said.

German rail company Deutsche Bahn has suspended services to and from the affected areas.

At Frankfurt airport, the country’s largest, federal police were on Sunday checking passengers arriving from Vienna and Prague.

The restrictions are aimed at slowing the spread of new, more contagious variants that first emerged in Britain and South Africa, and have created new virus hotspots along the Czech border and in Austria’s Tyrol region.

The European Commission, eager to avoid a return to go-it-alone pandemic responses, has condemned Germany’s newest restrictions and urged it to facilitate cross-border movement for commuters.

“The fear of the coronavirus mutations is understandable,” EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides told Germany’s Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Sunday.

“But the truth is that the virus cannot be stopped by closed borders,” she said, adding that vaccines and following hygiene precautions were “the only things that work”.

“I think it’s wrong to return to a Europe with closed borders like we had in March 2020,” she added.

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has angrily rebuffed the criticism from Brussels.

“That’s enough now,” he told the top-selling Bild daily.

The EU “has made enough mistakes” with its sluggish vaccine rollout, he said.

“We are fighting against the mutated virus at the Czech and Austrian borders. The EU Commission should support us instead of puting stones in our path.”