Vancouver Sun

EU BACKS KEEPING EXTERNAL BORDERS SHUT

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BRUSSELS The European Union executive on Friday backed keeping curbs on travel to the continent in place for another 30 days until mid-june as part of extraordin­ary measures to limit the spread of the coronaviru­s.

The bloc decided in midmarch to close its external borders for any non-essential travel in a largely failed bid to prevent the 27 member states from closing frontiers inside Europe’s control-free travel zone.

The EU’S Home Affairs Commission­er Ylva Johansson said this week Europe would have to “go back to the future” of open borders once the pandemic is under control. But for the time being, at least 17 of the Schengen zone’s 26 countries have various travel restrictio­ns in place. The Schengen zone brings together most EU countries as well as Norway, Iceland and others.

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