EU removes US from list of safe destinations due to increase in coronavirus cases | Community

The Council of the European Union on Monday removed the United States and Israel from the list of safe countries from an epidemiological point of view, whose citizens can travel to the European Union for pleasure and not just for fundamental reasons. EU governments have approved a new update to this list, from which Kosovo, Lebanon, North Macedonia and Montenegro and the UK still do not enter, the EU Council reported. It’s a statement. “This is without prejudice to countries lifting temporary restrictions on non-essential travel to the European Union for fully immunized travelers,” states the board.

With this new revision, the list of non-EU countries for which it is recommended to allow “non-essential” travel consists of Albania, Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Jordan and New Zealand. Zealand, Qatar, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Ukraine. China has been on this list since the standards were set in July last year, but reopening is conditional on reciprocity not happening, so it has practically no effect. There are also no restrictions on Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan or Kosovo. In addition, residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican should be considered EU residents when it comes to border crossing.

The EU Council recommendation is not binding on member states, but the institution cautions that a state should not decide to lift travel restrictions for countries not on the list without a coordinated decision in the union. It is not mandatory because the powers in border matters are exclusive to the national authorities.

The recommendation states that citizens of those countries will not be able to travel to the European Union without a substantial reason, as they have been able to do so far since the said list of safe third countries was first adopted in June 2020. Epidemic. However, the US did not mutually lift the restrictions during this period and restricted non-essential travel for European citizens despite the progress of the vaccination campaign in the EU countries.

The European Union has also opened its borders to tourists who have been fully vaccinated with any of the vaccines authorized by the European Union or the World Health Organization (WHO), but they also have a list of countries to which people are allowed not to travel. As long as it shows a negative PCR test.

The decision for countries with carte blanche to enter is based on the number of infections per 100,000 population in the past 14 days, based on the trend of new cases over the same period in the previous 14 days, and the ability of those countries to trace. and contain and treat potential new outbreaks.