Belgium Bans Travellers From The UK

Belgium has banned travellers from the UK. The ban will come into force on Saturday. The move comes after France joined Germany in calling for a coordinated EU approach to the Delta variant.

Britain joins Argentina, Georgia and Tunisia on a list of “very high risk” countries.

The Belgian government says it has growing concerns about the Delta variant.

The measure will come into force on Saturday, June 26, and includes an exemption for Belgian nationals or residents.

The move comes after France joined Germany in calling for a coordinated EU approach to the Delta variant and a bloc-wide agreement on what restrictions travellers from outside the EU should face.

“For me one of the issues of discussion is to be really taking coordinated decisions in terms of opening of borders to third countries and on recognising vaccines because at this stage we have to limit this to the vaccines that have been approved by the European medical authority,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 24.

Yesterday German Chancellor Angela Merkel told the lower house parliament, “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.”

The UK government hit back at her remarks today and said it was up to individual countries, not Germany or the EU, to set their own rules.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, “Currently it is down to individual EU member states to decide on the rules governing their borders. We are moving at speed through our vaccination programme to help us curb this latest variant and that will allow us to move to Step 4, and we are confident that over time it will bring cases down, and that’s the approach we are taking.

“We will continue to have discussions with our European partners on the reopening of international travel but we’re very confident that our vaccination programme is providing a good way forward,” he added.

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