Council updates EU Covid safe travel list

Between August and September, the Council updated the list of countries for which travel restrictions should be lifted, following the Recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU.

Nationals and residents of the countries who are not part of the list will no longer be able to automatically come to the EU without negative testing or quarantine requirements. But Member States might decide to lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travellers.

The current list includes 16 countries and regions: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Jordan, New Zealand, Qatar, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Uruguay, Ukraine, China (subject to reciprocity), Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. It is to note that countries such as the US, Japan or Israel are not part of the list anymore.

HOTREC takes note of the decision but highlights that the Recommendation’s criteria of the Council should not only take into account the number of incident rates but also focus on the high vaccination levels in the EU, as well as hospitalization rates.