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EU nations agree to open borders to vaccinated travellers from outside bloc

The Local
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EU nations agree to open borders to vaccinated travellers from outside bloc
(Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

The 27 member states of the European Union announced on Wednesday they had agreed to allow fully vaccinated travellers to enter the bloc, according to reports.

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EU ambassadors for the 27 member states reached an agreement on Wednesday to allow vaccinated holidaymakers from outside the EU, including the UK, to visit the bloc, reports say.

Ambassadors recommended at a meeting on Wednesday that rules should be changed to allow non-essential visits into the EU by travellers who are fully vaccinated - in other words both doses of a two-dose vaccine or one in the case of the Johnson & Johnson injection.

However on the unresolved question of how will visitors be able to prove they have been vaccinated, the EU said it will be up to individual member states to decide what evidence they will accept.

The Local is currently trying to determine what proof will be needed in the countries we cover.

The EU currently has a small "safe list" of countries from where travellers are allowed in for non-essential reasons due to its infection rates. The list includes Australia, New Zealand and Israel. The UK is expected to be formally added to this list on Friday although some EU countries, including France, have already jumped ahead and allowed non-essential travel from the UK.

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Travellers from these countries are permitted to enter the bloc even if they are not vaccinated, but in general must show evidence of a recent negative test.

The EU is currently working on a "Covid-19 certificate" which will be allow travellers to prove they are either vaccinated, recovered from Covid or have recently tested negative.

Brussels is in talks with other countries like the US and the UK to determine whether visitors from these countries can also use the EU's Covid-19 certificate, which should be available on a smartphone app sometime in June.

READ ALSO: How will the EU's 'Covid-19 certificate' work for travel in Europe?

Meanwhile, Germany has already eased most quarantine requirements after travel for fully vaccinated people although there are still currently restrictions for people entering the country.

Earlier this month the EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen revealed the bloc's plan "to revive the tourism industry and rekindle cross-border friendships".

"We propose to welcome again vaccinated visitors and those from countries with a good health situation. But if variants emerge we have to act fast: we propose an EU emergency brake mechanism," said Von der Leyen.

The EU has been trying to push a coordinated response across the 27 member states to allow for tourist travel from non-EU countries, which was effectively banned in March last year.

However border policy is decided on by each member state and finding common ground in this area has proved difficult.

There has been increasing pressure to open up from certain European countries such as Greece and Spain which depend heavily on tourism.

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"The Commission proposes to allow entry to the EU for non-essential reasons not only for all persons coming from countries with a good epidemiological situation but also all people who have received the last recommended dose of an EU-authorised vaccine," said the EU Commission statement.

The vaccines licensed for use in the EU so far are Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.

The Commission says growing evidence that vaccination helps to break transmission chains supports the argument to reopen borders to tourists from non-EU countries.

The EU parliament has backed the Commission's plan for "EU Covid-19 certificates" that travellers would need to prove they are either fully vaccinated, recovered from Covid and therefore have antibodies or tested negative before travel.

This is what the EU Commission has proposed:

  • Member States should allow travel into the EU of those people who have received, at least 14 days before arrival, the last recommended dose of a vaccine having received marketing authorisation in the EU (Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson).
  •  If Member States decide to waive the requirements to present a negative PCR test and/or to undergo quarantine for vaccinated persons on their territory, they should also waive such requirements for vaccinated travellers from outside the EU.
  • Member States could consider setting up a portal allowing travellers to ask for the recognition of a vaccination certificate issued by a non-EU country as reliable proof of vaccination.
  • Children who are excluded from vaccination should be able to travel with their vaccinated parents if they have a negative PCR COVID-19 test taken at the earliest 72 hours before arrival area.

Several EU member states have already announced their own plans for reopening, including France which proposes allowing all vaccinated tourists from outside the EU from June 9th, and Spain which is talking to the UK government directly about access for British tourists this summer.

 

 

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robeire 2021/05/20 08:50
Personally I would put a halt on travellers coming in from the UK. Whilst the vaccination campaign has been very successful there the spread of the new variant from India and the less talked about but arguably more worrisome one from Brazil due to the UK's unwillingness to control inbound travel makes it a hotspot for the virus and a risk to its neighbouring countries.
  • jamesarbuthnot 2021/05/22 09:25
    Personally I would not recommend visiting the EU anymore. The businesses are so starved that you're likely to experience very shady pricing practices and the mental health of Europeans has been severly degraded making the continent a very unpleasant place to be.
  • lyssa77 2021/05/20 10:00
    New studies show the vaccine is effective against both variants and only lowers immunity by about 10% to the Brazil one, but is equally effective against the India variant. No worries.
lenbartlett 2021/05/19 15:32
Hi - I need to travel by car from Spain to France. What are the border restrictions?
  • lyssa77 2021/05/19 21:28
    https://reopen.europa.eu/en
adel 2021/05/19 13:56
Anyone has a clue when Norway will open the borders for partners to finally get together with their loved ones?
  • lauraelee7 2021/05/19 20:08
    Super awaiting the answer for this as well!
nwillansb 2021/05/04 13:58
To me the great issue here is only accepting vaccines approved by the EU and not all vaccines approved by the WHO. I come from South America and most countries here are vaccinated with Sinovac which is chinese but approved by the world health organization. If they don't add these other approved vaccines to the list then Europe will lose a huge portion of tourists and then again they would discriminating greatly.
  • thelocal_462458 2021/05/19 12:38
    EU’s own Hungary and Slovenia are using Russian vaccine - so how are they going to deal with that I wonder.
  • nwillansb 2021/05/04 14:04
    Another thing to add is that for example in my home country we have 85 days till mass country immunity, that is less than half the time needed compared to European countries. Its tourists that need protections from Europeans not the other way around.
ajgibb73 2021/05/04 12:47
Since when does Sweden coerce people into taking experimental vaccines? Didnt they ban that sort of thing at the Nuremberg Trials? My body, my choice yes? Just test the people as they arrive, and charge them 500kr for it soo my tax money doesnt have to pay for it. No Covid=no problem. As for 'Protecting' people, most people do absolutely nothing to protect themself! Eat and drink what ever they want, dont excerise, dont take suppliments to improve there immune system and now i have to protect them by taking an experiemntal vaccine! no thanks.
ihesketh 2021/05/04 08:28
The big question is, when will the Italian government recognise there are people living in Italy who are not registered with the health service and therefore unable to have a vaccination? It needs to be a vaccination for all persons living in the country not just for those with the health card. Until they “wake up” to the situation they will never go near eradication of the disease.
mark_hendrix 2021/05/03 19:13
US citizens get only a paper CDC card, which is so easily forged that fake cards are currently being sold by scammers. So which EU country wants to be the first to say they'll accept this as proof of vaccination? Anyone? Anyone? Buehler?
  • lyssa77 2021/05/04 09:16
    True. I got my first shot yesterday. I'll be "fully vaccinated" 6/18. I live in Germany, but I'm an American. My parents would love to come see me. They have been fully vaccinated since February. We do just have the cards. Still, everything has been honor system until now. UK and US citizens should be trusted. I know someone who came from Kenya and simply bought a fake test cert to come into Austria. They were never tested. If Germany (EU) is allowing that, surely the white card with name, vaccine type, batch, and date is good enough.
  • stuart.laing 2021/05/03 23:07
    Since only 20% of EU citizens have been vaccinated, it's really the tourists that need protecting from the locals rather than the other way round - specially those from the US and UK.
  • mlstgeorge149 2021/05/03 19:41
    Buehler? 😂 Perfect!
jo.el.sullivan 2021/05/03 18:12
We have rescheduled our daughter's wedding for June 15 in Italy. Was supposed to have been in May 2020. Everyone in our group has been vaccinated, just waiting on pins and needles to see if they will let us in. Vaccination cards, app or whatever they want, just wish we could hear something somewhat definitive.
syed_wajahat 2021/05/03 18:08
All vaccinations approved by WHO should be allowed and not just the 3 that EU has approved. It’s sad to see that even in these times of peril Russia, Eu and China have horns locked over vaccine approvals
stuart.laing 2021/05/03 16:30
The issue here, I'm afraid, is not who the EU will let in but who will want to come. Apart from the fact that ,say in the case of France, Brits would have to book their holidays whilst all the restaurants , bars etc are still closed, it's very unlikely that any EU country - other than maybe Malta - will be on the UK green list. That means two-weeks holiday in France will cost every Brit tourist 2 weeks quarantine when they get back to Britain. That isn't going to happen is it ? I understand the EU wanting to open up but really it's premature and a decision not driven by the data but the economics of not wishing to lose another tourist season.
  • lyssa77 2021/05/04 09:20
    You aren't wrong, but my parents want to come see me anyways. We can still see things outdoors and order food for take out. Currently, despite being fully vaccinated since February, my parents have been unable to come visit me in Germany.
andrew.hayes59 2021/05/03 14:45
This is tremendous news for British who have family resident in Sweden . Everyone in UK over the age of 40 has now received 2 shots of the vaccine , and Covid cases in UK are now close to zero.
  • thelocal_462458 2021/05/03 16:16
    That's some rose-tinted glasses you are wearing, "Billy". Yesterday's cases: 1671, two doses given to 22,9% of population (people 40+ are 50% of population). Much better than Europe, but let's not overstate it.

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