European Union officials are at odds over potential travel restrictions in response to the COVID-19 Omicron variant amid the busy holiday travel period.
According to Reuters, the EU's 27 member states have been debating for weeks how to contain the virus without disproportionately disrupting travel within the border-free European Schengen area.
Italy, Greece, Portugal and Ireland are among the countries that have recently implemented tightened restrictions on travelers from the EU. For example, Italy has begun requiring all travelers from EU countries to present a negative COVID-19 test on arrival, even if they have been vaccinated, through the end of January. Unvaccinated travelers are required to quarantine for five days.
Following a recent summit of EU leaders in Brussels, officials concluded that "any restrictions should be coordinated, based on objective criteria, and should not 'disproportionately hamper free movement between member states,'" Reuters reported. "Adding tests to vaccine certificates means undermining the value of the COVID-19 certificate," an unidentified EU diplomat said, referring to the document that allows holders to travel freely across EU borders if they have been vaccinated, have recovered or have tested negative recently.
This week, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control stated that Omicron was more transmissible and likely to become the dominant variant in Europe within the first two months of 2022 but stopped short of proposing travel restrictions, noting that the variant was already present in many EU states and was often transmitted locally.
The European Commission has proposed that member states require a negative test only for people arriving from outside the EU, regardless of vaccination status. The Commission is also considering a change to the COVID-19 certificate that would make proof of vaccination sufficient for unimpeded movement across the EU for up to nine months after completion of the primary vaccination cycle.
EU diplomats are scheduled to meet for further discussions on Tuesday.
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