Germany Enables Systemically Important Commuters in Border Regions to Enter the Country, Despite Entry Ban

More commuters at the border regions of the German Federal States of Bavaria and Saxony will be permitted to cross the borders, despite the current entry ban that the government has imposed on arrivals from the two EU countries bordering these regions – Austria and the Czech Republic.

After an entry ban previously warned by the German authorities on entry from these two countries went into effect on Sunday, later on, Monday, February 15, the German Ministry of Interior has announced that some commuters would be exempt from the ban.

In a press release, the same Ministry notes that the Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, in collaboration with the Prime Ministers of the Federal States of Bavaria and Saxony, has approved further entry options for commuters in the border regions as part of the temporary internal border controls. The prerequisite is that the job is in systemically relevant professional sectors.

Announcing the decision, the Federal Minister of the Interior Seehofer notes that consistent measures are required in order to prevent the virus from being carried into Germany from region borders, adding that the authorities are aware that Germany’s border regions and those of the neighbouring countries are interwoven in many ways.

“Entry should remain possible for cross-border commuters in systemically relevant occupational sectors. We are taking a pragmatic approach wherever possible. The solution that has now been found could be an example of how we will proceed in combating pandemics with cross-border traffic in the future,” the Minister said.

Thus, exempt from the entry ban for travellers from border regions in Saxony and Bavaria, effective since February 14, are employees who are indispensable for maintaining the functionality of companies.

Starting from February 17, Wednesday, these employees are required to have with them individualised official certificates, of their company and of their own, issued by the respective state authorities in Bavaria and Saxony. Commuters will be asked to present these certificates on entry to the control authorities.

It is up to the Federal States of Bavaria and Saxony to decide which companies in Saxony and Bavaria within the systemically relevant occupational sectors specifically fall under the supplementary exceptions.

Exempt from the entry ban on arrivals from Austria and the Czech Republic also remain the following

• German citizens and their immediate family members
• legal residents of Germany (even if they are not German nationals)
• freight transport staff and other staff needed for the transport of goods
• physicians, nurses, and staff of nursing homes) and other escort staff needed for air ambulance and organ transplant flights
• persons travelling to Germany for urgent humanitarian reasons
• persons travelling by order of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations (UN) or a UN organisation