Macron backs Merkel over EU-wide quarantine for British tourists

A tourist wheels luggage in Lloret de Mar, Spain - one of the countries that does not currently have a quarantine requirement for British travellers. - Angel Garcia /Bloomberg 
A tourist wheels luggage in Lloret de Mar, Spain - one of the countries that does not currently have a quarantine requirement for British travellers. - Angel Garcia /Bloomberg
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Emmanuel Macron on Thursday backed Angela Merkel’s demand that EU leaders impose quarantine restrictions on British tourists to stop the spread of the delta variant of coronavirus.

At a summit in Brussels, Mrs Merkel talked “very critically” to leaders of tourism-dependent EU countries for "a failure even today to adequately control arrival from non-EU states where virus variants are proliferating."

Different EU countries have different rules for visitors from the UK, where the delta variant makes up the majority of cases.

The French president backed the German Chancellor on the first of a two day EU summit.

"Above all we have to be very coordinated," he said, as he arrived in Brussels. He warned the EU had to be "vigilant" against the infectious new variant.

Mrs Merkel warned that Europe was on “thin ice” in its fight against the pandemic and that the delta variant risked undermining recent progress in cutting down infections in her traditional pre-EU summit address to the Bundestag on Thursday.

Angela Merkel will press for greater coordination among EU member states in their response to coronavirus. - Getty Images 
Angela Merkel will press for greater coordination among EU member states in their response to coronavirus. - Getty Images

Germany, Italy and Poland either have or will introduce quarantine restrictions on UK visitors. France currently allows double-vaccinated Britons to visit without self-isolation because the UK is on its amber list. Unvaccinated people must have an essential reason for travel, a negative test and quarantine for seven days.

Tourism-dependent countries such as Spain, Greece, and Croatia could still ignore the demand by the bloc’s two most influential leaders for fear of another lost summer season.

EU leaders agreed summit conclusions that called for member states to be “vigilant and coordinated with regard to developments, particularly the emergence and spread of new variants”.

That statement could form the political basis for future EU-wide restrictions against British holidaymakers.

Infections have dropped in the EU as vaccinations have increased but the new highly contagious variant is spreading across the Continent.

Delta has become the dominant variant in Portugal and has emerged in clusters in Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

EU health officials predicted on Wednesday that the delta variant will make up 90 per cent of all cases across the bloc by the end of August.

In Germany, the delta variant now makes up about 15 per cent of new cases, according to the country's disease control agency.

Portugal's prime minister Antonio Costa rejected criticism for having allowing British tourists to visit . He said Lisbon had followed EU recommendations because at the time UK infection rates were low.

Any disagreement among leaders was "a misunderstanding", he claimed as he arrived at the summit.

Mrs Merkel will step down after elections in September. "We need to remain vigilant," she said in what could be her last address to the Bundestag as Chancellor.

"In particular, the newly arising variants, especially now the delta variant, are a warning for us to continue to be careful."

She appeared to have won support from Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, before the summit.

"We need to keep a close eye on variants and contain their spread in a coordinated manner," he said in a letter to EU leaders.

"In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine - and that's not the case in every European country, and that's what I would like to see," Mrs Merkel said on Wednesday.

The UK has not been added to the EU’s "white list" of countries because of the spread of the delta variant.

The list, which is not binding on national governments, exempts countries on it from a ban on non-essential travel into the bloc.

The leaders hailed the EU’s new vaccine passport, which should come online at the end of the month.

The free joint digital travel certificate for people who are fully vaccinated, freshly tested, or recently recovered from the coronavirus allows people to move between EU countries without having to quarantine or undergo extra coronavirus tests upon arrival.