Official speeches and statements - January 14, 2022

1. COVID-19 - Government relaxes health measures for vaccinated people at the border with the United Kingdom - Press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (Paris - January 13, 2022)

Given the predominance of the Omicron variant both in France and the United Kingdom, the Government has chosen to ease the special health control measures at the border, which were decided in December 2021 for vaccinated travelers coming from the UK. These measures were taken at a time when the epidemic was progressing dramatically in the UK, with France still then relatively protected from the Omicron wave. With the variant now widespread in both countries, the Government has decided on the following adjustments.

The rules which will apply from this Friday morning for travel between the UK and France are as follows:

• All travelers, vaccinated or unvaccinated, will have to present a negative (PCR or antigen) test result less than 24 hours old on departure
• For vaccinated travelers, there will no longer be any obligation to provide a compelling reason to visit France, or any obligation to observe a self-isolation period on arrival in France. In this regard, the obligation to register on the éOS-Passager digital platform prior to the journey will be removed. Screening tests may be carried out at arrival points.
• For unvaccinated travelers, journeys from or to the UK will be allowed, provided they can prove they have a valid compelling reason for red-list countries (https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-duMinistere/Attestation-de-deplacement-et-de-voyage).

Unvaccinated travelers coming from the UK will still have to register, prior to departure, on the éOS-Passager digital platform (https://passager.serveureos.org/), where, among other things, they can enter the address where they are staying in France.

On arrival in France, they will have to observe a strict 10-day quarantine period in that place; this quarantine will be monitored by the police.

2. Kazakhstan - Reply by Mr. Franck Riester, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Economic Attractiveness, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, to a question in the Senate (Paris - January 12, 2022)

We’re obviously following as closely as possible the recent events which occurred in Kazakhstan; let me remind you that the rise in energy prices provoked a large-scale social protest movement in the country and the crisis turned political. This crisis has led to a number of very serious acts of violence, with a number of casualties and probably a heavy provisional toll, including a very significant number of people injured.

We condemned the violence by calling, quite obviously, for a de-escalation of tensions and for political dialogue. We also—and [Foreign] Minister Le Drian said this last week, as soon as the first information was known—recalled how close an eye we were keeping on fundamental freedoms, freedom of expression and freedom of the press being respected. And we’d like the circumstances leading to these dramatic events to be fully elucidated.

We’re also keeping an eye on continued respect for the sovereignty and autonomy of action of the Kazakhstani authorities, who, as you said, have called on the assistance of the Collective Security Treaty Organization. A contingent, the vast majority of which is Russian, has therefore been deployed to secure the country’s strategic sites. It’s essential that the external parties temporarily involved in this situation help to de-escalate tensions, then withdraw within the timetable indicated publicly by the Kazakhstani authorities.

Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke to Josep Borrell about the crisis, and as holder of the European Union Council presidency we’ll maintain close dialogue with the European External Action Service and our European Union partners. Kazakhstan is an important partner of the European Union and France—you recalled my visit to Kazakhstan in May 2021—and also an important partner as we saw recently with the Afghan crisis.

Let me add that in the past few days we’ve been particularly vigilant about the security of the French community in Kazakhstan, and a crisis unit has also been put in place, allowing our compatriots to be kept informed and close contact maintained with those of our nationals who so wish.