Brussels asks states to open borders to vaccinated tourists
States will debate proposal tomorrow, which also proposes extending list of countries from which travel to EU is allowed
BarcelonaThe European Commission has recommended this Monday all member states allow the entry of fully vaccinated tourists or those from countries with a good epidemiological situation without any kind of restriction, to safely revive the tourism sector. Currently, the EU-27 allow non-essential travel from only seven countries, but Brussels is now proposing to extend the list.
In a statement published on Monday, the European Commission proposes "to allow entry into the EU for non-essential reasons only to persons coming from countries with a good epidemiological situation and also to persons who have received the last dose of a vaccine authorised by the EU", i.e. Pfizer, Moderna, AztraZeneca and Janssen. It also points to the possibility of extending this to people who have received vaccines authorised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on an emergency basis.
"This would have to be facilitated by the Digital Green Certificate", when it is implemented and issued "by the authorities of the member states individually or with some other certificate recognised as equivalent".
At the same time, it proposes to raise the limit of new cases of covid-19 -currently located between 25 and 100 per 100,000 inhabitants- set for EU countries whose borders are open, and also establish an "emergency brake" to determine new entry restrictions when a new variant of the virus worsens the epidemiological situation of a country. At the moment only citizens of Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and China (subject to reciprocity) are allowed to travel without restrictions.
The 27 member states are due to discuss this proposal tomorrow, Tuesday, in order to take a joint decision to make it effective.
