The European Union has taken a significant step toward relaxing travel rules for tourists from outside the 27-nation bloc, with EU ambassadors agreeing on measures to allow in fully vaccinated visitors, as well as easing the criteria needed for nations to be considered COVID-19 safe and from which all tourists can travel.
Under the current criteria, which measures a country’s coronavirus and vaccination status, only seven nations are approved (Canada not among them).
The EU imposed restrictions on non-essential travel last year to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but the bloc’s ambassadors said many of those restrictions should be eased, including to permit vacation travel by non-EU residents.
The European Council made up of EU nations “will now recommend that member states ease some of the current restrictions” for those who have been vaccinated, European Commission spokesperson Christian Wigand said. He didn’t give a precise date for when the borders will reopen since EU countries have yet to formally approve the measures.
“The council should also soon expand the list of non-EU countries with a good epidemiological situation from where travel is permitted,” said Wigand. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is to give advice on the list.
The European Commission – the EU’s executive arm – proposed easing the rules for entering the bloc earlier this month, saying entry should be granted to individuals fully vaccinated with EU-authorized shots. Coronavirus vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency, the bloc’s drug regulator, include the ones made by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.
The executive commission also proposed permitting EU member nations to decide individually whether to allow in travellers immunized with vaccines approved by the World Health Organization for emergency use, which include the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.
Wigand said ambassadors also agreed on an “emergency brake” mechanism designed to stop dangerous virus variants from entering EU nations through quickly enacted travel limits if the infection situation deteriorates in a non-EU country.
Once the non-binding measures are approved, EU countries will keep the possibility to impose restrictive measures on tourists such as PCR tests or quarantines.
EU nations have been struggling throughout the pandemic to prop up their vital tourism industries and hope to recover some income over the peak summer season.
Greece, which is heavily reliant on tourism, has already lifted quarantine restrictions for the US, Britain, Israel, and other non-EU countries as negotiations between governments and EU lawmakers to introduce COVID-19 certificates aimed at facilitating travel across the region this summer continue. A deal is required by end of the month to ensure the system will be up and running by the end of June.