EU wants bans on travel from UK to be removed
TRAVEL from the UK to the European Union should be “discouraged” due to fears about the mutant variant of coronavirus but bans on movement should be lifted, the EU has said.
The European Commission yesterday recommended a joint approach from EU members, after individual countries imposed emergency restrictions. The most dramatic action came from France, which closed its border to lorries crossing the Channel, leading to more than 1,500 HGVs being trapped in Kent.
The EU-wide approach recommended by the commission would allow essential travel, and transit of passengers should be facilitated.
Flight and train bans “should be discontinued, given the need to ensure essential travel and avoid supply chain disruptions”, the commission said.
EU justice commissioner Didier Reynders said: “Member states should take co-ordinated action to discourage non-essential travel between the UK and the EU [but], at the same time, blanket travel bans should not prevent thousands of EU and UK citizens from returning to their homes”.
Transport commissioner Adina Valean said: “Within the EU, it is crucial that transport workers are exempted from any restrictive measures.”
Talks between the UK and France to resolve the crisis at the Channel included discussions on testing HGV drivers. The EU’s recommendation suggested rapid tests should be used to avoid disruption.
The commission said: “Cargo flows need to continue uninterrupted... not least to ensure the timely distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, for example.”
UK ministers have insisted that supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which is manufactured in Belgium, have not been affected by the disruption.
Despite the European Commission recommendations, the Republic of Ireland extended restrictions on travel from Great Britain until December 31 which ban passenger flights and sea crossings.
Yesterday morning, Home Secretary Priti Patel said 650 lorries were queued on the M20 with 873 at a former airfield site in Manston, Kent, as they were blocked from using ferry routes to Dover and the Channel Tunnel.
Ms Patel said the Government was “speaking constantly” with France to achieve a resolution “in both our interests” to get freight moving again. She defended the Government’s handling of the pandemic, insisting on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that ministers had been “ahead of the curve” in tackling coronavirus.
More than 40 countries around the world have banned flights from the UK due to the mutant variant of coronavirus, which spreads more readily than previous strains.
Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said the “borders really need to be running pretty much freely from tomorrow to assure us that there won’t be any disruption” to supplies of groceries.
He told the Today programme: “There is a problem, potentially, directly after Christmas and that is really in fresh produce, so we’re talking here about things like salad, vegetables, fresh fruit, of which the vast majority come from Europe at this time.”
The main problem was empty lorries stuck in Kent unable to head over to the continent to reload with fresh supplies, he said. Ms Patel said that ,although 20% of goods come through the short straits Channel crossing, “there is plenty of food in the supermarkets”.
She added: “We have fresh produce come in through other routes as well, through air freight and not just through the short straits, so I think we have to just take a balanced approach to this.”