The European Union has narrowed down the list of third-countries considered as “safe”, the citizens of which will be eligible to enter the Schengen Area, once the borders are reopened for non-essential travel
While during the end of the last week, the Commission was planning to permit the citizens of 54 countries to enter, the list has narrowed down to 15 countries, and the Commission is yet to come out with a final list of who will be able to enter the EU by the end of this week.
Previously, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported that the citizens of 54 world countries would presumably benefit from the reopening of the European Union external borders, which is expected to happen by the beginning of July.
According to sources of Euronews, EU officials failed to agree on a common list of the countries that would definitely be banned from entering the block upon the border reopening but managed to create a list of the countries with a better epidemiological situation, the citizens of which will be able to enter Europe soon.
The same sources have also confirmed that citizens of Brazil, Qatar, the US and Russia will only be able to enter Europe at a later date when the epidemiological situation in these countries improves.
Nationals of the following countries were listed in the draft list published on Saturday:
- Albania
- Algeria
- Andorra
- Angola
- Australia
- Bahamas
- Bhutan
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Canada
- China
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
- Dominica
- Egypt
- Ethiopia
- Georgia
- Guyana
- India
- Indonesia
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Lebanon
- Mauritius
- Monaco
- Mongolia
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Myanmar
- Namibia
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Palau
- Paraguay
- Rwanda
- Saint Lucia
- Serbia
- South Korea
- Tajikistan
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Turkmenistan
- Uganda
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Vatican City
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
- Zambia
“The European Union has an internal process to determine from which countries it would be safe to accept travellers,” EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said last Thursday, adding that its decisions are “based on health criteria.”
On June 11, the Commission presented its recommendation on the reopening of internal Schengen borders on June 15, so that Europeans can travel within the borderless area freely, just as they did pre-pandemic.
At the same time, the Commission recommended that the Member States should start allowing third-country nationals to enter the EU starting from July 1, gradually and partially, based on the epidemiological situation in each third-country.
The Commission recommended the following objective criteria for the Member States, when drafting the list of countries, the citizens of which may visit the EU after July 1:
epidemiological situation and coronavirus response in that country,
the ability to apply containment measures during travel, an
whether or not that country has lifted travel restrictions towards the EU.
Based on these conditions, the Commission recommended that the nationals of the six Western Balkan countries should be the first to benefit from the abolishment of travel restrictions, all of which are in the above list.
Last update:
European Union has revealed the new list of 15 countries that will be permitted to enter the EU from July 1.