London, US President Donald Trump’s coronavirus travel ban on 26 European countries has been met with anger and confusion, with EU leaders accusing him of making the decision “without consultation”.
The Covid-19 pandemic is a “global crisis”, said top European Union officials Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel. It “requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” they said, the BBC reported on Thursday.
The ban is due to go into effect on Friday.
It affects only countries that are members of the Schengen border-free travel area and does not affect US citizens, the UK, or Ireland.
It is a major escalation in the response to Covid-19 by Trump, who has been accused of inaction. However, the ban was met with frustration in Washington as well as abroad.
On Thursday, the US leader said he did not inform his EU counterparts because “it takes time”.
“We had to move quickly,” Trump said, adding that the EU did not consult the US when raising taxes on American goods.
The European ambassador was, naturally, diplomatic.
“We feel there should have been cooperation rather than action that targets one continent,” the diplomat, who asked not to be named, says on the phone, referring to the travel ban.
Trump’s action took him and other ambassadors in Washington by surprise.
Still he made his views about the travel ban, as well his frustration and anger about the restrictions, clear: “We are not very pleased,” he says. “No.”
Others are equally dismayed: the Atlantic Council’s Daniel Fried, a former US ambassador to Poland, says he found the president’s remarks disappointing: “Anti-EU bashing is indulgence.” Ambassadors here in Washington, both current and former, are now waiting for the president’s next move – with a fair amount of dread.
As another former ambassador put it: “I am not confident.”
Over 1,300 confirmed cases of the virus have been reported in the US, with 38 deaths so far.
Italy now has over 12,000 confirmed cases and 827 deaths, second to China. France, Spain and Germany have also seen a rise in cases.
