EU leaders discuss COVID-19 variants as contagion risk raised to ‘very high’

EU leaders discussed the challenges posed by new variants of COVID-19 on Thursday and agreed on a coordinated approach to restrictions on non-essential travel.

After the virtual meeting on Thursday, European Council President Charles Michel said member states had to be vigilant to contain as much as possible the new virus variants.

"We are fully convinced that we must keep our borders open to maintain the well-functioning of the internal market … [but] new restrictions should be considered for non-essential travel," he added, insisting that this should be done "in a coordinated way".

Member states are expected to strengthen or extend restrictive measures in the next few days but they are also expected to avoid banning passenger travel between outside countries and the EU.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, an EU agency, raised the risk associated with new variants from high to "very high" on Thursday, discouraging all non-essential travel and urging member states to be ready to enforce stricter measures. 

The new virus strains, particularly the UK variant, is believed to be more contagious and "likely to lead to higher hospitalisation and death rates," the EU agency warned.

Malta has banned travel from the UK except for residents of Malta, who will have to undergo mandatory quarantine and testing on arrival.

EU leaders also discussed a common approach to vaccine certificates.

Malta, Greece and Portugal support the idea of vaccine certificates to facilitate travel across the bloc and restore tourism.

Prime Minister Robert Abela urged the commission to hasten its work on a system of digital vaccine certificates and called for greater coordination and cooperation between member states.

“Vaccine certificates are an important tool to facilitate the safe movement of people within the EU and give economies some breathing space,” Abela said.

The proposal has been opposed by France, which lags behind in the EU's vaccination-rate rankings, and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says the impact of vaccines on reducing transmission is still unclear.

European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said on Thursday that there were still too many open questions, but that a thorough debate on the use of certificates will come "when the time is right".

Member states agreed on a common framework for the use of rapid tests and the mutual recognition of PCR test results across the bloc.