EU: COVID-19, agreement on measures restricting movement. Commission, “ensure essential travel, inform citizens”

“While Member States can still decide what restrictive measures they apply such as quarantine or tests, we call on Member States to ensure that citizens are given clear and timely information about what they must do, and which restrictions are in force, as per the agreement today. Member States also agreed on the mutual recognition of tests, and we will continue to work with them on better coordination of testing and quarantine requirements”, the Commission says, following the agreement reached by the 27 EU ministers on the restriction of free movement due to the worsening of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Today’s agreement - the Commission adds - will also be a welcome improvement to a currently precarious situation”, that of “millions of citizens with an essential reason to travel, be it for important family reasons, for their livelihoods, or to ensure that we receive the goods we need”. “No quarantine measures should be applied in these cases”.
Indeed, “our strength as a Union is when we act as one, to protect our common rights and freedoms and the health of our citizens. Today’s agreement is a good example of this”. All information about travelling in the EU will be available on the “Re-open EU” platform (https://reopen.europa.eu/en/), where the common map published regularly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control will also be cross-referenced.
Valentina Bombelli