The European Union has approved travel from 14 countries from today, while extending a ban for others including the USA.
The targeted reopening of external borders means people from 14 countries can now travel to Europe.
The approved countries include Australia, Canada, Japan, Algeria, Georgia, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.
The criteria used to approve countries for travel include if the number of new cases over a 14-day period was close to or below the EU’s average per 100,000 people. The country must also have a stable or decreasing trend of news cases during the same period.
Technically, the list of accepted countries is a recommendation that member states are responsible for implementing,
“The authorities of the member states remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation. They may, in full transparency, lift only progressively travel restrictions towards countries listed,” said the European Council.
Trade association the European Business Aviation Association has urged governments to lift travel restrictions in a coordinated way.
EBAA Secretary-General, Athar Husain Khan said, “A coordinated approach to lifting travel restrictions is vital to avoid the confusion experienced by some Business Aviation operators when Europe reopened its internal borders earlier this month, and effectively restart air travel”.
The list of accepted countries will be reviewed and updated every two weeks.
In addition to the USA, the travel ban remains in place for Russia, Brazil and India – countries where cases of Coronavirus are rising. Chinese travelers will be allowed into the EU once reciprocal access for Europeans is granted by China.
According to the European Council, the UK is being treated as part of the EU until the end of the year and so appears on neither the banned or accepted list.
