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Date Published: 26/04/2021
ARCHIVED - European Commission says Europe will be open to vaccinated American tourists
The European Commission also plans to implement the vaccine “passport” scheme by this summer
The president of the European Commission (EC) has announced that tourists from the United States of America who have received a Covid vaccine approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) will be allowed to travel to all 27 countries that make up the European Union.
However, the president, Ursula von der Leyen, did not specify any dates or further information regarding the issue, although she did say that the final decision would be made by the individual countries involved.
North America is on track to achieve immunity by mid-June, when around 70% of the adult population will be fully vaccinated. The EMA has currently approved the Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which are the three types of vaccinations being used in the United States.
The immunization of the United States coincides with the final negotiation phase for the vaccine “passport” in Europe, as the European Parliament plans to approve the final draft for the passport in the plenary session in June.
At the beginning of June, a pilot version of the document should be ready, and the official passport will be available at the end of that same month, in order to help promote the summer tourism campaign.
On March 17, the European Commission presented a digital version, with the intention to make the passport ready before the summer, an objective which is strongly supported by airline companies.
Furthermore, the EC is open to collaborating with other countries which are also planning on implementing a passport system, such as the United States or the United Kingdom, although it is becoming increasingly unclear whether these agreements will be reached by early summer.
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