It’s official: the European Council issued a recommendation to all its 27 members on Monday to reinstate Covid travel restrictions for unvaccinated travelers from the United States.<\/b>
\nOn again, off again. Now it\u2019s official: On Monday, the European Council issued a recommendation to all its 27 member states to reinstate Covid travel restrictions for travelers from the United States that are unvaccinated against the coronavirus. The U.S. is among others on the list: Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro and the Republic of North Macedonia have also been removed from the list of safe countries whose residents can travel without quarantine and testing due to local surges in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations in recent weeks. \u201cThe European Council has removed five countries and one entity\/territorial authority from the list of countries for which travel restrictions should be lifted,\u201d the Council\u2019s statement announces. \u201cFollowing a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the E.U., the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted.\u201d What that means, according to the European Council press release, is that \u201cnon-essential travel to the E.U. from countries or entities not listed (as \u2018safe\u2019 countries) is subject to temporary travel restriction. This is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the E.U. for fully vaccinated travellers.\u201d The reinstatement of restrictions made by the European Council are not mandatory and each country can now decide whether or not to impose them. Decisions by each member country\u2019s government will become clear in coming days. Fully-inoculated travelers with an E.U.-approved vaccine (including the three vaccines available in the U.S.) will be allowed to enter. \u201cAs stipulated in the Council recommendation, this list will continue to be reviewed regularly and, as the case may be, updated,\u201d the council stated. The last time the council updated the criteria to determine the third countries for which the current travel restriction should be lifted was May 20, 2021, a year after imposing bans on travel due to the spread of Covid cases around the world. Most European countries, anxious to take advantage of summer vacations and help their battered tourism industries, reopened their borders to U.S. travelers in June. \u201cIn essence, the European Union gave the United States a summertime pass to encourage tourism, despite the relatively high infection rates in parts of the country,\u201d writes the New York Times. The benchmark to be on the \u201csafe\u201d or green list is fewer than 75 new Covid-19 cases daily per 100,000 people over the past 14 days. Last week, average daily hospitalizations of Covid patients in the United Sates was more than 100,000, similar to the peak reached during the winter. The European list of safe countries is based \u201con the epidemiological situation and overall response to Covid-19, as well as the reliability of the available information and data sources,\u201d the Council explained. \u201cReciprocity should also be taken into account on a case-by-case basis.\u201d As for E.U.-U.S. \u201creciprocity,\u201d while American tourists could come to Europe since June, \u201cthe United States has remained closed to Europeans, drawing anger from Europeans and their leaders, who have expressed frustration at the lack of reciprocity,\u201d the New York Times added. Based on the criteria and conditions set out in the recommendation, starting August 30, European Union member states \u201cshould continue to gradually lift travel restrictions at the external borders for residents of the following third countries: Travel restrictions should also be gradually lifted for the special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macao. Under the category of entities and territorial authorities that are not recognised as states by at least one member state, travel restrictions for Taiwan should also be gradually lifted. Residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican should be considered as E.U. residents for the purpose of this recommendation. Schengen-associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) also take part in this recommendation.\u201d<\/p>\n