EU executive wants travel suspension from countries with new COVID variant

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – The European Commission proposed on Friday that EU countries suspend travel links with countries in which the new variant of the coronavirus called B.1.1.529, has been found.

The Commission recommendation is not binding as decisions on travel restrictions are taken individually by the 27 governments of the EU, but it would allow better coordination, the Commission said.

“We want to have fast and coordinated and consistent measures in place because we want to avoid that there are loopholes through which the variant finds its way to Europe,” a Commission spokesman told a regular news briefing.

“So this is why early afternoon, at this meeting, we will discuss with all member states about introducing measures as soon as possible,” the spokesman said.

(Reporting by John Chalmers and Marine Strauss, writing by Jan Strupczewski)