The EU’s Closing of Its Borders to Americans and What It Shows About the US’s Handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic
Rohin Buch
Health Head
Ever since the major EU member states began to see an influx in coronavirus cases in their countries over the last couple of months, all eyes have been on how, when, and if the EU will reopen its borders. The EU is a special case because besides constituting a conglomerate of many different countries with their unique characteristics and cultures, the EU has prided itself in its openness through the implementation of the Schengen Area. Named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement at which it was formed, the Schengen Area is a zone of Europe consisting of 26 countries that have abolished all border control between countries. As such, travelers and citizens of the Schengen Area member countries can cross freely between countries without any passport or identification check. This lends itself to the possibility of a much more rapid proliferation of the virus through Europe and the EU given that the absence of border checkpoints leads to free movement without anyone to check the symptoms of a COVID-19 patient should they present themselves at a border.
As a result, the EU has been extremely cautious in reopening its borders amid the COVID-19 pandemic so as to prevent the rapid spread of cases within its borders. It had been previously announced that as of July 1, the EU would begin a gradual transition into reopening its borders, in time for foreign travelers eager to travel to the tourist destinations around Europe to arrive, however it has recently been made public that this reopening will not include anyone traveling to the EU from the United States of America.
While this may be throwing a wrench in the summer plans of many Americans who wished to escape to the beaches of Italy or the mountains of Germany, there is a much larger significance. The EU’s strategic exclusion of the US from the list of the countries it is opening its borders to shows the EU’s view on how the American government and the populace as a whole have been responding to the coronavirus pandemic. As the New York Times writes, the EU’s ban on American travelers “is a stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump’s handling of the virus in the United States, which has more than 2.3 million cases and upward of 120,000 deaths, more than any other country.”
This quote could not be more true and is proven even further in the inclusion of one specific country on the list whose citizens can enter the EU: China. Being that China is the country where this coronavirus originated, for the EU to add it to the list of allowed countries adds insult to injury for the US. This scathing, yet indirect, attack on President Trump’s management of the COVID-19 crisis truly shows how the outside world sees the US’s handling of the pandemic.
One preliminary list of countries whose citizens would be allowed to enter the EU upon reopening uses the EU’s average number of new infections over the last 14 days per 100,000 people as the criterion for making it onto the list or not. As a result, when analyzing the US’s average, it was found that it was 108 people per 100,000 while the EU’s average—the benchmark— was a mere 16, putting the US’s average almost seven times the EU’s.
In conclusion, should American citizens want to travel anywhere outside the US in the near future, it is vital that the government begin to manage the crisis more effectively. This would increase the chances of a nationwide reopening and also allow for Americans to travel abroad.
Works Cited
Stevis-Gridneff, Matina. “E.U. May Bar American Travelers as It Reopens Borders, Citing Failures on Virus.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 June 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/06/23/world/europe/coronavirus-EU-American-travel-ban.html.
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