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European Airports Urge EU To Urgently Investigate Malta For ‘Breaching’ COVID-19 Travel Rules 

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A council representing European airports has urged the European Commission to investigate Malta for “breaching” EU travel rules.

PoliticoPro reported that it has seen a letter that ACI Europe, which represents European airports, has sent the EC’s health, transport and digital departments.

In it, ACI Director General Olivier Jankovec said airports would be “extremely grateful” if the Commission investigates the matter “urgently,” contacts the Maltese authorities and asks them to abide by the EU’s rules.

Jankovec added that the EU’s digital COVID certificate had been “instrumental” in allowing the restoration of free movement for EU citizens during the pandemic, with its “uniform standards and rules providing a much necessary common trusted framework.”

PoliticoPro reported that the Maltese government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Malta’s new rules, which came into force on Monday, state that Maltese vaccine certificates for adults aged 18 or over will only be valid for initial vaccine cycles completed within the past three months or boosters within the past nine months.

Vaccine certificates of under-18s, who aren’t eligible for the booster, will be based fully on the initial vaccine cycle.

Maltese residents returning to Malta after 17th January without a valid vaccine certificate will be granted a two-week grace period, but from 1st February onwards, such people will be “asked” to quarantine for 14 days.

The rules have been opposed by the Malta International Airport and are already creating confusion internationally, with the Italian Embassy in Malta not specifying in a statement on its website that they only apply to Maltese vaccine certificate holders.

They also diverge from rules adopted by the European Commission last month, which established a binding acceptance period of nine months for all EU vaccine certificates.

These rules, which will apply from 1st February, aim to ensure a coherent and harmonised approach to intra-EU travel, after the disjointed measures that member states applied during the COVID-19 pandemic threatened the very concept of freedom of movement.

“Under these new EU rules, member states must accept any vaccination certificate that has been issued less than nine months since the administration of the last dose of the primary vaccination,” an EC spokesperson told Lovin Malta earlier this month.

“Member states cannot provide for a shorter nor for a longer acceptance period.”

The EC confirmed it is in touch the Maltese authorities to seek clarifications about this new travel rule.

Do you agree with Malta’s new travel rules? 

READ NEXT: Maltese Court Orders Pharmaceutical Company To Pay €14,000 To Man Who Was Sacked While Suffering From Depression

Tim is interested in the rapid evolution of human society and is passionate about justice, human rights and cutting-edge political debates. You can follow him on Instagram or Twitter/X at @timdiacono or reach out to him at [email protected]

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