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Is France imposing a 14-day quarantine on UK travellers?

Following a summit of EU leaders, British media reported that France is imposing a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from the UK, even fully vaccinated ones - so what's really happening?

Is France imposing a 14-day quarantine on UK travellers?
Photo: Ian Langsdon/AFP

Do arrivals in France from the UK have to quarantine for 14 days?

At present, no. The UK is on France’s orange list for travel under the traffic light system that has been in place since June 9th.

This means that fully vaccinated travellers can come to France for any reason and don’t need to quarantine, but do need a negative Covid test.

For those not fully vaccinated things are stricter – they can only travel for essential reasons and have to quarantine for seven days on arrival, and have a negative Covid test.

You can find a full explanation of the rules HERE.

Is this about to change?

Maybe. There concerns in France and other EU countries about the spread of the Delta variant of Covid.

This accounts for 90 percent of cases in the UK, where case numbers are again rising. In France, and most of the rest of the EU, case numbers are falling and the Delta variant represents only a small percentage of cases, but leaders are very aware that this could change rapidly.

What’s the change?

Some countries have already brought in extra measures for UK travellers, with Belgium bringing in a travel ban and Germany quarantining all UK arrivals, even fully vaccinated ones, for 14 days.

German chancellor Angela Merkel said: “In our country, if you come from Great Britain, you have to go into quarantine – and that’s not the case in every European country, and that’s what I would like to see.”

Does France agree?

Speaking at a meeting of EU leaders on June 24th, French president Emmanuel Macron seemed to back Merkel’s view, saying: “For me, one of the issues of discussion is to be really taking coordinated decisions in terms of opening of borders to third countries and on recognising vaccines, because at this stage we have to limit this to the vaccines that have been approved by the European Medicines Agency.”

So a 14-day quarantine?

You will notice that what Macron actually said is considerably more vague that announcing a 14-day quarantine.

Under France’s current rules no arrivals have to quarantine for 14 days, not even those from red list countries such as India. The maximum quarantine time is 10 days and this can be done at home – although this is enforced with visits from the police.

Throughout the pandemic, France has consistently pushed for a coordinated EU approach to border restrictions, so what Macron said only chimes with the current position.

However, border decisions are taken on a national level for all EU countries and in the past 18 months there has never been total consensus on health rules, with all countries imposing different rules at different times on arrivals from various countries.

Other EU countries at the summit were not in favour of such strict measures and so far no consensus has been reached.

We will update our Travelling to France section HERE as soon as there is an announcement from the French government on any changes to the travel rules.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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