Macron says EU needs more coordination to counter Delta variant

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - French President Emmanuel Macron urged EU countries to be extremely vigilant about the Delta variant of the coronavirus and to be more closely coordinated on allowing tourists to come from outside the bloc.

"We must all be vigilant because the much-talked-about Delta variant is coming, which spreads much more rapidly than the other variants and affects people who are not vaccinated or who only have had one dose," Macron said ahead of an EU summit in Brussels, adding the EU needed to drive vaccinations even more.

"For me one of the issues of discussion is to be really taking coordinated decisions in terms of opening of borders to third countries and on recognising vaccines because at this stage we have to limit this to the vaccines that have been approved by the European medical authority," he continued.

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Marine Strauss)