House wants Malta to remove ‘draconian’ quarantine for COVID dark red list
The Chamber of Commerce called for the lifting of travel restrictions for third countries, and complained that Malta continues to maintain a long dark red list and “draconian” quarantines for arrivals even if travelers are vaccinated.
The House said this made it impossible to resume business-related travel to and from third countries.
“It puts local businesses with contractual obligations or new business potential in third countries at a disadvantage compared to their EU counterparts,” said Liz Barbaro Sant, chair of TradeMalta, a public-private partnership between the House. and the Maltese government in charge of facilitating business in third countries.
“The message is that Malta is not open to business, and that Maltese businesses are reluctant to serve their customers in these countries, which is not the case. At both the commercial and diplomatic levels, this has become unsustainable and is hampering the pipeline of international business prospects for Maltese businesses. ”
On 22 February, the EU Council adopted an updated recommendation on non-essential travel from third countries to the EU, stating that member states should allow non-essential travel for people vaccinated with a vaccine approved by the EU. EU or WHO, recovered persons. and all persons traveling from a country on the EU whitelist, while allowing additional measures such as pre-travel PCR testing to be requested.
It also argues that reciprocity should continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis and indicates that it is appropriate to start moving towards a purely vaccine-based approach rather than the country of origin. origin. . The Council’s recommendation is not legally binding, but most EU countries have adopted it.
The President of the House of Malta Marisa Xuereb said that there are significant commercial interests in third countries that are being put at risk by quarantines that are not in line with the approach adopted in Malta.
“It is no longer necessary to quarantine if you have a positive case within your home, but you must quarantine if you return from most third countries even if you are vaccinated. An urgent revision of these rules is needed to enable businesses to resume their international activities without further delay. The smallest country in the EU cannot be the slowest to leave. “