The governing body of the European Union is firing back at President Trump’s new ban on travel from the continent’s countries.
The president on Wednesday announced a 30-day travel ban from European countries, with the exception of the United Kingdom and Ireland, in response to the global coronavirus pandemic. The European Commission, however, issued a scathing statement in response, condemning the move.
“The coronavirus is a global crisis, not limited to any continent and it requires cooperation rather than unilateral action,” it said Thursday. “The European Union disapproves of the fact that the U.S. decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation.”
The restrictions, which will apply to the 26 countries within the bloc’s Schengen free-travel zone and will not include trade, will go into effect on Friday, leaving tens of thousands of Americans in Europe scrambling to find their way home. Trump’s announcement came hours after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus a pandemic.
Nearly 130,000 cases of the illness have been confirmed worldwide, with China, the coronavirus’s place of origin, being the hardest hit. In Europe, Italy has been the worst affected, with more than 12,000 cases and almost 900 deaths. Earlier this week, the country was forced to place its entire population of nearly 60 million on lockdown to combat the spread of the illness.
Trump’s decision to implement a temporary ban on travel from most of Europe was met with criticism by some who felt his referring to coronavirus as a “foreign virus” during his address smacked of “xenophobia.” There have been more than 1,300 cases of the COVID-19 virus in the United States and more than 30 deaths from it.
