temporarily closed, the european union by 13 march continued to reject the idea of suspending the schengen free travel area and introducing border controls with italy. the deputy leader of the swiss ticino league, lorenzo quadri, by 29 february had criticised the decision, saying, "it is alarming that the dogma of wide-open borders is considered a priority." united states president donald trump said by 12 march the european union had "failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from china and other hot spots" as the us had implemented. trump also said that "as a result a large number of new clusters in the united states were seeded by travellers from europe." research on coronavirus genomes indicates the majority of covid-19 cases in new york came from european travelers, rather than directly from china or any other asian country. by 9 march, czech prime minister andrej babiš stated that "european countries cannot ban the entry of italian citizens within the schengen area. the only possible way is to have the italian prime minister call on his fellow citizens to refrain from traveling to other countries of the european union." after slovakia, denmark, the czech republic and poland announced complete closure of their national borders, the european commission president ursula von der leyen said by 12 march that "certain controls may be justified, but general travel bans are not seen as being the most effective by the world health organization. moreover, they have a strong social and economic impact, they disrupt people’s lives and business across the borders." european union leaders condemned the us decision to restrict travel from europe to the united states. european council president charles michel and ursula von der leyen said in a joint statement: "the european union disapproves of the fact that the us decision to impose a travel ban was taken unilaterally and without consultation." ursula von der leyen admitted by 17 march that "all of us who are not experts initially underestimated the coronavirus." as of 22 february 2021, the uk has banned direct flights from 33 countries, including portugal, south africa, peru and the united arab emirates. all travelers entering the uk via indirect flights have been ordered to quarantine in a designated hotel for 10 days. since passengers coming from high-risk countries with south african virus’ mutant (like the uae and south africa) are mixing with other travellers before reaching their accommodation, this travel ban is being criticised extensively. eu solidarity main article: european union response to the covid-19 pandemic the italian government has criticised eu's lack of solidarity with italy. politico reported on 7 march that "eu countries have so far refused italy's plea for help fighting coronavirus, as national capitals worry that they may need to stockpile face masks and other medical gear to help their own citizens, officials and diplomats said." maurizio massari, italy's ambassador to the eu, said that "only china responded bilaterally. certainly, this is not a good sign of european solidarity." serbian president aleksandar vučić said that "european solidarity does not exist. that was a fairy tale." eventually, in july 2020 the european council agreed to a massive recovery fund of 750 billion € branded next generation eu (ngeu) to support member states hit by the covid-19 pandemic. the ngeu fund goes over the years 2021 – 2023 and will be tied to the 2021–2027 budget of the eu (mff). the comprehensive packages of ngeu and mff will reach the size of 1824.3 billion €. in response to the pandemic, the european investment bank group is establishing a €25 billion pan-european guarantee fund. it is projected that the guarantee fund would raise up to €200 billion. reaction time of spain international women's day march in mérida, spain, 8 march main article: covid-19 pandemic in spain according to the guardian, spain's initially slow response to covid-19 caused the epidemic to become severe even though it did not share a land border with italy or other severely affected countries. an analysis in vox hypothesised that the minority government did not want to risk its hold on power by banning large gatherings early; prime minister pedro sánchez initially defended his decision to allow large gatherings to continue. military exercises during pandemic the planned nato "defender 2020" military exercise in germany, poland, and the baltic states, the largest nato war manoeuvres since the end of the cold war, was to be held on a reduced scale because of the covid-19 pandemic. restrictions on civil liberties there was concern that measures taken by some national governments on occasion of the covid-19 pandemic would have the aim or effect of restricting democracy and civil liberties and rights. in hungary, prime minister viktor orban acquired near absolute powers through such legislation on 3 april. use of scientific advice the european union's chief scientific advisors issued a statement on 24 june 2020, providing guidance for how scientific advice should be given and interpreted during the pandemic. one key point made by the advisors was that scientists must be clearer about the degree of uncertainty that characterises the evolving evidence on which their advice is based, for instance around the use of face-masks. they also emphasised that scientific advice must be separated from decision-making, and this separation must be made clear by politicians. in april 2021, the leaders of the society for aerosol research warned the debate on covid-19 measures does not reflect current scientific knowledge. they said protection against infection must take place above all where people spend time indoors, because "the transmission of the sars-cov-2 viruses takes place almost without exception indoors." notes data protection law number 6698 precludes the turkish ministry of health from disclosing sensitive patient health information, interpreted broadly to include location during the pandemic. turkey's article 11/c of the law on public health authorizes only provinces to order quarantines, for a maximum period of 15 days. the national government is barred by the constitution from ordering lockdowns. unlike other governments, the holy see press office reports on diagnoses and status of its employees, not only cases within its jurisdiction. its announcements are generally imprecise as to the nationality and residence of the cases it reports. one was identified as a resident of vatican city. another was diagnosed and is being treated in an italian location that is neither vatican city nor rome. the political status of kosovo is disputed. having unilaterally declared independence from serbia in 2008, kosovo is formally recognised as a sovereign state by 101 un member states (with another 13 states recognising it at some point but then withdrawing their recognition) and 92 states not recognizing it, while serbia continues to claim it as a part of its own territory.