Common Action Replaced by Member States Measures
The Health Union of the European Union, which is based on the idea of a collective response to health concerns, was abandoned at the first indication of problems. All it needed for a number of EU nations to act independently and enact travel restrictions that the bloc’s scientific experts have blasted as ‘unjustified’ was a spike in COVID cases in China.
Countries including the United States and Japan have enhanced border procedures for tourists from China as a result of China abandoning its zero-COVID policy. Italy was the first EU member state to take action, requiring testing for visitors coming from China. This forced the EU to move quickly to avoid another fragmented response at the time of the COVID-19 epidemic. Following a meeting of the EU Security Committee, nations decided against adopting any travel-related common action. However, the health ministry of Spain announced that travellers traveling from China must be completely immunized or have a negative test.
Concerns
Countries like Italy, the United States, Japan, and now Spain are concerned that China may serve as a breeding ground for new varieties. However, the consensus among scientists is that this is improbable given that China is lagging far behind other countries in terms of varieties, and those that are already there will not be able to compete with the strains spreading elsewhere. Giorgia Meloni, the prime minister of Italy, is joined by senior EU MPs in calling for the EU to act collectively. She acknowledges that action by Italy alone ‘may not be completely effective unless it is taken by the whole EU.’ Manfred Weber of the European People’s Party, who is the leader of the centre-right bloc in the European Parliament, has demanded that all visitors from China undergo mandatory testing.
‘With more competition than collaboration about what to do’, there are echoes of prior national variations on COVID policies, according to Paul Belcher, a public health consultant for Europe and advisor to the European Public Health Alliance. But Belcher claimed that by working together on issues like vaccinations and establishing new EU structures that facilitate decision-making this problem has been resolved. ‘These included the newly formed EU Health Union, which aims to improve the cooperation of health security when a crisis arises.’ What is the underlying idea? Prepare and react as a team. According to Belcher, the current differences over China ‘show that this default to knee-jerk national responses has not entirely gone away.’
Stella Kyriakides, the European Commissioner for Health, also stated in a letter to health ministers on Thursday night that the situation was ‘evolving.’ According to her, nations should evaluate their national practices for monitoring the virus’s genome and scale up capacity as necessary. They should also adopt wastewater surveillance, including monitoring of sewage water from airports. Director General of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has expressed alarm over opacity and requested ‘more detailed information’ from China. He tweeted: ‘It is understandable that governments around the world are acting in ways they believe may protect their populations in the lack of thorough information from #China.’
What Should Hungary Do?
At the present moment, Hungary has not decided to join countries enforcing vaccination or immunity for travellers, however, it is an issue that will be discussed by the government in the near future. As the pandemic tore through Europe, Hungary managed to produce great numbers in vaccination and infection rates by enforcing travel restrictions, and by issuing cards that prove the holder’s immunity. While no official reaction has been made public as yet, one could expect Hungary to stand behind countries such as Italy and Spain, especially considering that Viktor Orbán and Georgia Meloni are allies regarding more than one political issue, and governing their respective countries along similar principles. With Meloni taking a strong stance regarding restrictions, there is speculation that the Orbán government may follow suit in the near future.
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