European Union countries want to discuss dealings with China on Wednesday

Representatives of European Union countries want to discuss a unified approach in their response to the coronavirus wave in China on Wednesday. This was announced by the current presidency of the Swedish Council in Brussels today.

The main question is how to deal with people entering the country from China. Yesterday, the French government asked other European Union countries to test travelers arriving from China for infection with the virus.

Austria: no test needed

So far, Austria sees no reason to do so. On the sidelines of Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s visit to Vienna, Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) called on the European Union to take concerted action on the issue. “The majority of EU countries do not have regulations. I don’t think this is necessary at the moment either.”

At the beginning of December, the government in Beijing announced a sudden departure from its strict “zero Covid” policy under pressure from protests and a faltering economy. Since then, the country has been swept by a wave of coronavirus with about 1.4 billion inhabitants.