Pandemic bordering: domestic politicisation, European coordination, and national border closures in the COVID-19 crisis

Abstract

ABSTRACT When the member states imposed unilateral restrictions on the cross-border movement of persons and goods in their initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the EU appeared to relapse into the ‘politics trap’ of earlier integration crises. However, our analysis of entry restrictions for persons in France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Poland from the end of 2019 to the summer of 2022 shows no systematic relationship between domestic politicisation and national border closures. Rather, border closures followed the course of the pandemic as well as EU recommendations. Our findings suggest that the EU was able to escape the ‘politics trap’ thanks to the exogenous and symmetrical nature of the crisis and effective EU-level policy coordination.