European Commission calls for collective exit strategies
The European Commission is urging European Union member states to coordinate as they begin to ease lockdown measures, warning that failure to do so could result in new spikes of the coronavirus pandemic.
Several EU states have announced plans or have already begun to lift restrictions imposed to contain the outbreak, as pressure grows to revive their battered economies.
The EU executive arm, which has no power to dictate health measures to the 27 EU states, has repeatedly called for a common approach as the bloc’s members acted independently of each other in tackling the virus and are now proceeding in the same way in their exit strategies from lockdowns.
“It is time to develop a well-coordinated EU exit strategy,” the commission said in a draft set of recommendations, which it is expected to adopt this week.
“The exit strategy should be coordinated between the member states, to avoid negative spillover effects.”
Confinement measures must be eased only after the spread of the disease had significantly decreased for a sustained period of time, and when hospital capacity is sufficient to handle a likely new spikes of infections, according to the recommendations.
But governments across Europe are under increasing pressure to ease lockdowns as the disastrous impact of the pandemic on the global economy is clear. The commission has estimated that output in the eurozone could shrink by 10 percent this year.
In Italy, the first EU state to be heavily hit by the virus, dozens of businesses were allowed to resume activity from yesterday, including bookshops, stationers and shops selling children’s clothes, although harsh confinement measures remain in place.
Spain, which maintains one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns, allowed workers in construction and manufacturing sectors to go back to work on Monday.
Poland announced yesterday that it will gradually lift lockdown measures starting from Sunday, as the nation prepares for a presidential election on May 10.
