EU is planning to ease Covid travel restrictions
THE European Union’s executive body yesterday proposed an easing of restrictions on travel to the 27-member bloc, as vaccination campaigns gather speed.
Travel to the EU is currently extremely limited, except for a handful of countries with low coronavirus infection rates. However, with the summer holiday season looming, the European Commission hopes the new recommendations will help dramatically expand that list.
“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 EUauthorised vaccine,” the EU’s executive body said.
EU officials believe the Covid-19 vaccination campaigns will soon be “a game-changer” in the fight against the deadly virus, especially within the bloc and the border-free Schengen zone. Its proposal will be discussed with member states’ ambassadors this week and the Commission hopes it could come into force by June,
Under the Commission’s proposal, EU countries should allow travellers from third countries into the EU if they have been vaccinated with jabs approved for use in the region. Member states could also individually decide to accept travellers immunised with vaccines listed by WHO for emergency use.
The Commission also proposed to raise the threshold related to the number of new Covid-19 cases used to determine the list of countries from which all travel should be permitted.
“Non-essential travel regardless of individual vaccination status is currently permitted from seven countries with a good epidemiological situation,” the Commission said, proposing to increase the threshold of 14-day cumulative Covid-19 case notification rate per 100,000 inhabitants from 25 to 100.
“This remains considerably below the current EU average, which is over 420,” the Commission said. It was unclear which countries would actually make the cut, but an EU official said Israel would definitely be on the list – although the UK cannot be certain of inclusion.
“The UK, question mark; the US, for the time being, not quite,” he added, “but we will see how quickly the situation in the US evolves, notably for the rate of vaccination.”
In case the epidemiological situation deteriorates, the Commission proposed introducing an “emergency
brake” mechanism aimed at stopping dangerous virus variants from entering the bloc.
“This will allow member states to act quickly and temporarily limit, to a strict minimum, all travel from affected countries for the time needed to put in place appropriate sanitary measures,” it said.
EU officials and member states are also in discussions to introduce Covid-19 certificates aimed at facilitating travel across the region this summer. The Commission has proposed that digital certificates should be delivered to EU residents who can prove they have been vaccinated, and also to those who tested negative for the virus or have proof they recovered from it.
“Until the digital certificate is operational, member states should be able to accept certificates from non-EU countries,” the Commission said.