Reopening EU bars travelers from risky nations, including US
Americans will not be allowed to travel to European Union countries when the bloc opens to international visitors Wednesday, the European Council announced Tuesday.
Travelers from 14 countries, including Canada, South Korea and Australia, will be welcomed to the EU.
But those from the U.S. and many other nations will be barred as too risky because of spiking coronavirus cases in their home countries. Chinese travelers will be allowed to visit if that country’s government confirms a policy of reciprocity, the council’s announcement said.
The United States leads the world with nearly 2.7 million COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The criteria used to decide whether to lift pandemic travel restrictions were based on the epidemiological situation and containment measures in each country, the council said, including physical distancing, economic and social considerations.
Tuesday’s decree will not apply to travel to Britain, which left the EU in January. With a few exceptions, such as truck drivers, Britain now requires incoming travelers to self-isolate for 14 days, although the measure is under review and is likely to ease in the coming weeks. The requirement also applies to U.K. citizens.
EU officials determined which countries’ visitors will be allowed by looking at the trend in new infections, testing capacity, contact tracing and other steps countries have taken to contain the virus outbreak within their borders, Kasper Zeuthen, a senior media adviser for the EU’s delegation to the U.S., said last week.
The first yardstick: “The epidemiological situation in a given country ... should be as good as or better than in the EU,” he said.
According to EU data, the bloc, including the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, had 1.5 million coronavirus cases as of Tuesday.
Adalbert Jahnz, a spokesman for the European Commission in Brussels, the EU’s executive branch, told USA TODAY that lists would likely be reviewed every two weeks as new information about coronavirus trends in different countries becomes apparent.
Jahnz also stressed that the EU was not making “political decisions” about which countries should be allowed to travel to the bloc. President Donald Trump banned travel from European countries to the United States in midMarch. EU leaders slammed Trump’s decision at the time, saying it was taken without consulting the Europeans.
“This is fundamentally not about politics; it is about public health,” Jahnz said.
Border checks were dropped June 15 for most Europeans, though it’s a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules, and not everyone is equally free to travel everywhere.
The State Department and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise against international travel, though U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the State Department is working with homeland security and transportation officials on a plan to get “global travel back in place.”
Europe is the second most popular international destination for American travelers after Mexico, accounting for nearly 1 in 5 trips.