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EUROPEAN UNION

Sweden calls for China Covid travel restrictions meeting in EU presidency 

EU countries will meet next week to discuss a joint response to travellers from China amid concern over the country's explosion of Covid cases, new EU presidency holder Sweden announced on Saturday.

Published: 1 January 2023 11:51 CET
Sweden calls for China Covid travel restrictions meeting in EU presidency 
Passengers wearing masks arrive at the Capital airport terminal in Beijing, Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Beijing has said it will fully reopen its borders on January 8th for the first time since March 2020. Its current Covid surge has prompted several EU member states to impose Covid tests on travellers from China. Photo: AP Photo/Ng Han Guan

“Sweden is seeking a common policy for the entire EU when it comes to the introduction of possible entry restrictions”, the Swedish government said in a statement.

Stockholm, which took over the rotating EU presidency on January 1st, said it had called a meeting of the Council’s crisis management mechanism IPCR for Wednesday.

READ ALSO: Sweden assumes EU Presidency: Top priorities for the next six months

“It is important that we quickly get the necessary measures in place”, it said.

The government recently decided to give the Public Health Agency the task of evaluating how the infection situation in China may affect Sweden and what measures may be relevant.

Beijing has abruptly ended its draconian “zero Covid” policy, resulting in an explosion of infections in the country, which has prompted several EU member states to impose Covid tests on travellers from China.

France, Italy and Spain this week imposed Covid testing requirements. Germany, while saying it saw no need to impose routine tests, is seeking a coordinated system to monitor variants across European airports.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), one of the EU’s health agencies, said on Thursday that systematic screening of travellers was currently “unjustified”.

It cited the level of immunity in Europe and the presence on the continent of the same variants as in China.

The European branch of the International Airports Council said on Saturday that imposing restrictions for travellers from China country was “neither scientifically justified nor risk based”.

The federation, which represents more than 500 airports in 55 European countries, said the identification of possible new variants that could emerge in China could be detected with genomic sequencing of airport waste water analysis, without the need to test travellers.

READ MORE: Sweden’s presidency aims to ‘keep the EU together’: PM

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BREXIT

Brexit: Brits in EU feel European and don’t want to return home

The majority of Britons who live in the EU, Norway, Iceland or Switzerland and are protected under the Brexit agreement feel European and intend to remain in Europe permanently, but many have concerns about travel problems, a new survey reveals.

Published: 21 January 2023 14:05 CET
Brexit: Brits in EU feel European and don't want to return home

The research also shows that problems exist and “travel is where most issues relating to the new status currently occur”. For instance, border officials are still stamping passports of UK citizens with residence rights under the EU UK withdrawal agreement, even though they shouldn’t.

“There is constant confusion around passport stamping. I was ‘stamped in’ to France on a short trip… but could not find anyway to be ‘stamped out’ again. I think I can only spend 90 days in other EU countries, but have no idea how anyone can check or enforce that – until someone decides to try. It’s a mess,” was one of the answers left in an open question.

“Every time I go through a Schengen border control, I need to provide both my passport and Aufenthaltstitel card [resident permit in Germany] and watch to check that they don’t stamp my passport. As I am currently travelling a lot that’s been 20-odd times this year…” another respondent said.

The survey was carried out by Professor Tanja Bueltmann, historian of migration and diaspora at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, between October and November 2022. About 1,139 UK citizens replied.

Of these, 80 per cent found acquiring their new status easy or very easy, 60.7 per cent feel their rights are secure, while 39.3 per cent have concerns about their status going forward.

Staying permanently

More than three quarters (76.6 per cent) of respondents said they plan to live permanently in the EU or the other countries of the European Economic Area and Switzerland. In fact, 65.7 per cent said that Brexit has increased the likelihood of this choice.

For some, the decision is linked to the difficulty to bring non-British family members to the UK under new, stricter immigration rules.

“My German wife and I decided we no longer wanted to live in UK post Brexit referendum. In particular, we were affected by the impact of immigration law […] We cannot now return to UK on retirement as I cannot sponsor her on my pension. We knew it was a one-way journey. Fortunately, I could revive an application for German citizenship,” was a testimony.

“My husband is a US citizen and getting him a visa for the UK was near impossible due to my low income as a freelance journalist. We realized under EU law, moving to an EU country was easier. We settled on Austria as we had both lived there before… we could speak some German, and we like the mountains,” said another respondent.

Professor Bueltmann noted that the loss of free movement rights in the EU could be a factor too in the decision of many to stay where they are.

Citizenship and representation

Among those who decided to stay, 38.2 per cent are either applying or planning to apply for a citizenship and 28.6 per cent are thinking about it.

A key finding of the research, Bueltmann said, is that the vast majority of British citizens do not feel politically represented. Some 60 per cent of respondents said they feel unrepresented and another 30 per cent not well represented.

Another issue is that less than half (47.5 per cent) trust the government of their country of residence, while a larger proportion (62 per cent) trust the European Union. Almost all (95.6 per cent) said they do not trust the UK government.

Feeling European

The survey highlights the Brexit impacts on people’s identity too. 82.6 per cent of respondents said they see themselves as European, a higher proportion than those identifying as British (68.9 per cent).

“Brexit has really left me unsure of what my identity is. I don’t feel British, and I certainly don’t identify with the mindset of a lot of British people who live there. Yet, I am not Danish either. So, I don’t really know anymore!” said one of the participants in the survey.

Professor Bueltmann said the survey “demonstrates that Brexit impacts continue to evolve: this didn’t just stop because the transition period was over or a deadline for an application had been reached. Consequently, Brexit continues to shape the lives and experiences of British citizens in the EU/EEA and Switzerland in substantial, sometimes life-altering, ways.”

Considering the results of the study, Professor Bueltmann recommends policy makers in the EU and the UK to address the issue of lack of representation, for instance creating a joint UK-EU citizens’ stakeholder forum.

The report also recommends the UK government to rebuild trust with British citizens in the EU introducing voting rights for life and changing immigration rules to allow British-European families to return more easily. 

This article was prepared in cooperation with Europe Street News.

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