Eurochambres president Christoph Leitl has said that Austria was wrong to declare Croatia a coronavirus risk country in mid-August and that it would be better if the EU set up a "European traffic light" to denote hotspots in countries and regions.

Speaking to Austrian daily Kleine Zeitung, the president of the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry said “Austria doesn’t have many friends in Croatia at the moment” and that its warning against travel to Croatia was a mistake.

Leitl said the different courses of action taken by the EU member states during the coronavirus crisis was dangerous as it “is acquiring a political dimension in which relevant effects are given too little consideration.”

He advocates common European criteria, including a “traffic light system” which would apply to all countries. He said the EU needed “coordinating skills for the joint establishment of a European traffic light which should then be broken down at regional level.”

“We must distinguish and the system needs to be fine-tuned,” Leitl was quoted as saying.