Finland to maintain internal borders between Schengen countries, planning hybrid border strategy

Finland's Government announced (11-Sep-2020) plans to continue to impose country-specific restrictions on entry at its internal borders from 19-Sep-2020 to 18-Oct-2020. Under the EU Schengen border mechanism, internal border control between Schengen countries should not be continued beyond a maximum period of six months, which will be reached by Finland on 18-Sep-2020. Finnish authorities, however, have deemed that an exception should be made and that country-specific restrictions are necessary in order to combat a second wave of the COVID-19 epidemic. Internal border controls will continue until a new testing-based approach is introduced on 23-Nov-2020. This approach is based on a hybrid strategy for border traffic and travel, with internal border controls between EU and Schengen countries to be replaced by health security measures. [more - original PR]