Recommendation 2021/119 - Amendment of Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475 on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

LI 36/1

On 13 October 2020, the Council adopted Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/1475 on a coordinated approach to the restriction of free movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (1). The Recommendation established a coordinated approach on the following key points: the application of common criteria and thresholds when deciding whether to introduce restrictions to free movement, a mapping of the risk of COVID-19 transmission based on an agreed colour code, and a coordinated approach as to the measures, if any, which may appropriately be applied to persons moving between areas, depending on the level of risk of transmission in those areas.

Using the criteria and thresholds established in that Recommendation, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has been publishing, once a week, a map of Member States, broken down by regions, in order to support Member States’ decision-making (2).

As provided for in recital 15 of that Recommendation, the Commission, supported by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, should, in view of the evolving epidemiological situation, regularly assess the criteria, data needs and thresholds outlined in this Recommendation, including whether other criteria should be considered or the thresholds adapted, and transmit its findings to the Council for its consideration, together with a proposal to amend the Recommendation.

Two factors impact the current development of the pandemic. On the one hand, since the beginning of 2021, mass vaccination is being rolled out and millions of Europeans have been vaccinated against COVID-19 already. However, as noted in the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the European Council and the Council on a united front to beat COVID-19 (3), while infections rise and until vaccinations are administered on a scale required to turn the tide of the pandemic, continued vigilance, containment measures and public health controls will be required. In particular, the EU and Member States must act to contain the risk of a potentially harsher next wave of infections, characterised by the more transmissible new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which are already present across Europe.

The recent emergence of new variants of the virus is a serious cause for concern. While currently there is no evidence that these cause more severe disease, the variants appear to be somewhere between 50–70 % more transmissible (4). This means that the virus can spread more easily and more quickly, increasing the burden on overstretched healthcare systems. This is one likely cause for the substantial rises in cases in most Member States over recent weeks.

In its latest risk assessment on spread of the new SAR-CoV-2 variants of concern in the EU/EEA (5), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control states that the risk associated with the introduction and community spread of variants of concern has been increased to high/very high.

As one of the options to respond to this risk, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recommends that in order to slow down the importation and spread of the new SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, non-essential travel should...