App could be used by EU to relax restrictions

BERLIN — Germany’s foreign minister is calling for a single smartphone app to be used across the European Union to help countries coordinate when and how to relax their pandemic lockdown measures.

Heiko Maas said in an interview published Tuesday that “it’s important we don’t end up with a patchwork of 27 corona(virus) apps and 27 data protection regimes but coordinate as best as possible.”

Maas told Germany’s Funke media group that this would help roll back travel restrictions and border closures imposed across the bloc in recent weeks to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

He said a contact tracing app already being jointly developed by several countries showed that the EU “doesn’t have to copy the Big Brother methods of authoritarian states” but can instead safeguard personal privacy.