The citizens of 54 world countries will benefit from the reopening of the European Union external borders, which is expected to happen by the beginning of July.
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 by the end of next week.
EU have also mentioned 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 are listed in this draft list:
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. The 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.
Source: The European Commission