The EU Commission would like to limit the scope for states and companies in crises

To protect the common internal market, the European Commission wants to give companies and EU countries less scope to go it alone in crises such as the corona pandemic. Specifically, it should be possible to ban measures that restrict freedom of travel, or, in extreme cases, to make binding specifications for companies – for example, to give priority to certain orders, as the Brussels authorities announced on Monday.

"The Covid 19 crisis has made it clear that we must make our internal market work at all times, even in times of crisis," said EU Commission Vice President Margrethe Vestager.

A number of countries had reintroduced border controls, especially at the beginning of the pandemic. Huge traffic jams, for example, sometimes disrupted supply chains.

Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton stressed: "We must be better prepared to anticipate and respond to the next crisis." The EU states and the EU Parliament must now discuss the proposals. Before they can become binding, both institutions have to negotiate a compromise.