Most EU members have now approved an initial list of “safe” countries whose citizens will be allowed to travel to the EU/Schengen area as of 1 July. US not on list. Australia and Canada are. China would be, I’m told if granted access for EU travellors #COVID19 /1
Criteria for EU access includes virus infection rate but also the efficacy of the non-EU country’s healthcare and test, track and trace system plus the transparency of its health data as well as reciprocity issue: ie if country allows EU/Schengen citizens to travel there /2
Issue is politically fraught. Complicated by fact that border control in times of crisis is for national governments to decide,even those in Schengen area BUT Germany which takes 6month rotating EU presidency on 1 July, believes EU needs to be seen to act together over pandemic/2
Some EU countries still have borders closed to others. Complicates issue if those countries then open borders to a non-EU nation. Proposed solution: the list of “safe” non EU countries will be treated as advisory./3
EU members # won’t have to admit ALL nations on the list
BUT they will be expected not to allow access to nonEU countries not on the list. Greece for example had threatened to ‘go unilateral’... List would be published ahead of 1 July deadline and ‘regularly updated’ thereafter/4
BUT they will be expected not to allow access to nonEU countries not on the list. Greece for example had threatened to ‘go unilateral’... List would be published ahead of 1 July deadline and ‘regularly updated’ thereafter/4
If ongoing disagreements emerge over the proposed list today, then ambassadors representing all 27 EU countries will meet again in Brussels on Monday with aim of still getting text and list approved ahead of 1 July /5
Again: UK is not being discussed here. Travel to and from UK is dealt with separately by EU members. As long as transition period continues, the UK is not viewed as “outside” country even though it legally left EU on 31 Jan. /6 #COVID19
To be clear - Non EU countries don’t need to meet all the above ä-mentioned criteria to appear on the safe list. Confused? Of course. It’s going to be a recognisably fudged EU compromise list./7
To quote an EU source „No EU country is 100% safe as long as we don’t have a treatment or vaccine. So we can’t expect a non EU nation to be 100% safe either.“ #COVID19 /7
