EU Scrambles to Coordinate Response to UK Virus Strain

The European Union scrambled Monday to hammer out a coordinated response to a mutated strain of the coronavirus sweeping Britain, after countries cut transport links from the UK. 

Experts from the bloc's 27 member states held a three-hour crisis meeting in Brussels to come up with options on how to standardize the measures put in place to try to curb the spread of the new variant. 

"Participants stated their support for rapid action towards a coordinated EU approach in relation to measures applied to connections with the UK and called for guidelines from the Commission," a European diplomat said. 

A string of nations around the continent on Sunday began suspending travel from Britain -- but the bans have varied in length from just an initial 24 hours in Belgium to 10 days for Germany, and different rules apply to freight.

A source said EU ambassadors will convene Tuesday to try to nail down a unified approach and work out how they can eventually lift the border restrictions with Britain -- including by imposing a requirement for tests on all arrivals. 

"The important thing is to approve a similar and synchronized regime to have very strict measures, in particular preliminary PCR tests, when the EU decides to lift the measures taken," a European diplomat told AFP. 

"We will see if this will be successful on Tuesday."

A German government source told AFP that restrictions on air travel from Britain could be adopted by the entire 27-member EU and that countries were also discussing a joint response over sea, road and rail links. 

Experts believe the new variant of the virus -- one of several -- may be up to 70 percent more transmissible, but is no more lethal than the other forms. 

The EU wants to avoid a repeat of its initial reaction to the virus earlier in the year, when continental unity crumbled as individual countries unilaterally shut their borders.