The Brussels Times reported on Saturday that in a meeting of European Ambassadors on Friday, the EU finalized a list of countries allowed to enter the union when external borders reopen on July 1st, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the U.S. didn’t make the list.
On Saturday (June 27, 2020), the Brussels Times reported that European Union (EU) ambassadors finalized a list of which countries would be able to enter the union when external borders open on July 1st, 2020. EU member states will make the final decision by 6:00 PM GMT today to make the final decision after which the Croatian Presidency of the EU will determine the next steps. The approved list of 14 countries whose citizens can enter the EU include Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. Chinese citizens will also be permitted entry, conditional on reciprocity. Citizens from Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican City State, and San Marino will also be allowed to enter the EU from July 1st, 2020.
All non-essential travel to the European Union had been banned since the middle of last March and measures will be gradually lifted from July 1st with border restrictions remaining under the jurisdiction of each EU member state. The EU will therefore coordinate the movement of travelers from the non-Schengen areas. For a country to be eligible for EU travel, the meeting of certain epidemiological conditions has been proposed, primarily when the rate of new cases of COVID-19 is close to or below 16,000 per 100,000 inhabitants over the last 14 days. Additionally, the countries must be reporting a trend in stability or decrease in new cases and must also have appropriate COVID-19 mitigation efforts in place such as testing. According to the Brussels Times, with 124,732 deaths for 2.4 million cases, U.S. citizens will be banned from the European Union until further notice from July 1st, 2020.
Source: Brussels Times
Editor’s Note: This is a developing story.