Germany calls on EU nations to force Brit travellers to quarantine for 14 days to halt Delta variant
GERMANY yesterday tried to ban us from holiday sunbeds — as their footballers lined up a Euros showdown with our Three Lions.
Chancellor Angela Merkel urged all EU nations to make UK visitors quarantine to halt the spreading Delta variant.
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Greece, Spain and Portugal, desperate for Brit tourists, are likely to defy her battle cry.
And today a senior minister hit back at the calls for European states to lock out Brits as unjustified.
Merkel raged: “In our country if you come from Great Britain you have to go into quarantine.
“That’s not the case in every European country and that’s what I’d like to see.”
The German leader said Portugal’s decision to defy an EU-wide travel ban on Brits and reopen its border last month had “backfired”.
She added: “What I regret is we have not yet been able to achieve a uniform behaviour among the Member States in terms of travel restrictions.
“That is backfiring. We now have a situation in Portugal that could perhaps have been avoided, and that’s why we have to work even harder on this.
“We’ve made pretty good progress in recent months, but we’re not yet where I would like the EU to be.”
Mrs Merkel will step down as Chancellor in three months’ time after 16 years at the helm.
Brits must register to visit Germany then isolate for 14 days without any possibility of early test and release.
Germany has an inferior jabs roll-out and higher daily death rate, while 60 per cent of Brits are double jabbed.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has said the Delta variant is already taking hold on the continent.
It predicts that by the end of August a massive 90% of new cases across bloc will be down to the new strain.
Environment secretary George Eustice fumed: “Each country is taking their own decisions on this, so it will be for them to judge what approach they want to take.
“I’m not sure that such an approach would be justified given the highly advanced stage we are currently at now in terms of vaccination, with 80% having had one jab and now 60% having had the second jab.
“I don’t think such a move would be justified but obviously it’s for individual countries to make these judgments.”
MP Alec Shelbrooke said: “The Germans are willing to bully other nations as they still can’t accept the Brexit result on it’s fifth anniversary of the vote.
“And, unbelievably, they are willing to destroy their own tourist industry over political ideology.”
MP Conor Burns added: “It would be hugely disappointing if the EU continues to make decisions based on Brexit revenge than scientific fact.”
Italy also reintroduced mandatory self-isolation for visitors from the UK last week over Delta variant fears.
But other parts of the continent want to welcome us back.
France has said that double-vaccinated Brits will be able to visit this summer without quarantine.
Malta and the Spain’s Balearic Islands, which are set to be added to the green list, are also open.
Brussels has had a bloc-wide “ban” on non-essential travel from the UK in place since last Spring.
But the rules are voluntary and with the tourism industry on its knees many countries are ready to ignore them.
The EU is also set to roll out vaccine passports from the start of next month in a boost to hols hopes.
They will include proof of either a full vaccination, antibodies from infection in the past six months, or a negative test.
While the scheme is initially only for use within the bloc, there are plans to link it up to the NHS app later this summer.
Talks between UK and EU officials are ongoing over a deal that would open up border for double-jabbed Brits.
Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi yesterday said the vaccine programme has saved 14,000 lives, and prevented 44,500 hospital visits.
And a third of 18 to 24 year olds have got the jab in their first week of eligibility.
Ministers have declared that Britain is still on course to drop all restrictions on July 19, and put a recent surge in cases down to a new testing blitz.
