Luxembourg's Ministry for Foreign and European Affairs issued a statement late on Wednesday afternoon, confirming Luxembourg's removal from the German government's list of COVID-19 risk areas.
Germany's Robert Koch Institute marked Luxembourg as a risk zone for the coronavirus on 14 July, setting off shockwaves around the Luxembourg-Germany border region once more, as Minister Jean Asselborn pointed out in Wednesday's press release. Citizens on both sides of the border have struggled over the last month, with students denied access to universities and patients struggling to access important medical interventions.
Asselborn praised the close cooperation with Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia over recent weeks to find a solution to the issue, and hoped to ensure closer bilateral coordination across the Greater Region in the future.
Luxembourg was initially placed on the list due to high numbers of new cases identified on a daily basis from early July. However, the Grand Duchy has since received high praise from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) for its large-scale screening strategy, which has been well-equipped to quickly limit the risk of further infections, despite initial high numbers.
Asselborn stated that European cooperation was necessary to ensure an effective fight against the pandemic, deploring the fact Luxembourg had been punished with restrictive measures for implementing the ECDC's recommendations. Asselborn has long opposed the closure of Schengen borders, stating the rights to freedom of establishment, freedom of movement and freedom of residence enshrined in the EU treaties had been severely restricted over the past few months in the wake of the pandemic.
He concluded by saying a clearer pan-European approach was required to jointly overcome the crisis as quickly as possible.
