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Date Published: 03/05/2021
ARCHIVED - European Commission asks members to relax restrictions for vaccinated tourists from third-party countries
Countries such as the UK could be added to the list of countries allowed to travel to the EU
The European Commission has asked its members to relax their travel restrictions for tourists from third-party countries where vaccines approved by the EMA (European Medicine Agency) are being used, such as the United States of America and the United Kingdom.
The proposed modification includes updating the criteria used to determine the list of countries that aren’t subject to strict restrictions, using the current epidemiologic data and taking into account advances in the vaccination process.
The European Union revises the list of countries whose citizens are allowed to travel to the EU every two weeks to see if their incidence rate poses a threat to the control of the pandemic in the EU. The seven countries currently on the list are Australia, New Zealand, Ruanda, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and China (subject to reciprocity).
The European Commission believes that tourists from countries with a favourable epidemiological situation who have received an EMA approved Covid vaccine should be able to travel to the EU.
This would open the door to Spain for UK travellers, who are currently excluded from the list.
Had the UK still been a member of the EU, then its nationals would have been permitted to travel to EU countries as part of the member block, but the decision to leave the EU has left would-be UK holidaymakers waiting for the British government to remove its current ban on international travel for the summer and uncertain whether to book flights or not.
Some would-be travellers have already been frustrated once this month; believing that the UK international travel ban would end on May 17 and that the Spanish ban for UK citizens entering the country would end on April 30th, flights had been booked for Spain after May 17; however, the decision of the Spanish government to maintain its restriction on UK nationals entering the country until the end of May has resulted in the cancellation of flights and holidays before 1st June, this the EU says, should now be revised.
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