Baltic states agree to create ‘travel bubble’
VILNIUS (Reuters) – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia will open their borders to each other’s citizens from May 15, creating a Baltic “travel bubble” within the European Union amid an easing of pandemic restrictions, their prime ministers said Wednesday.
The Baltic travel area would be the first of its kind in the bloc, where most countries restricted entry to non-nationals and imposed quarantine on incoming travelers as the novel coronavirus spread across the continent.
“We have agreed that all three Baltic states have properly contained the spread of the coronavirus, and we trust each other’s health systems,” Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernlis wrote on Facebook. “So, starting from May 15, we are removing all restrictions for citizens of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia traveling between the Baltic states.”
People entering the region from other countries will need to self-isolate for 14 days, he added.
The European Commission has recommended that internal border controls between all member states should be lifted in a coordinated manner, once their virus situation converges sufficiently, the commission’s office in Lithuania said.
Moves to selectively open borders have also emerged elsewhere. Australia and New Zealand are working toward resuming travel between them, tough the efforts toward creating a common travel area could take some time.
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all major trading partners with each other, also are taking cautious steps to reopen their economies after lockdowns were imposed as local outbreaks struck.
The region has been part of the European Union since 2004 and the European free-travel Schengen Area since 2007. Estonia and Lithuania closed their borders to noncitizens during the outbreak, and all three nations imposed mandatory quarantines on anyone entering for nonwork-related reasons.
Meanwhile, new COVID-19 cases have slowed to a trickle recently with none of the countries reporting more than five new cases on Tuesday. Since the start of the pandemic, Lithuania has recorded 48 deaths from the disease, Latvia 17 and Estonia 55.