European countries must decide on a proposed list of fifteen states whose travelers will be admitted to the Union on July 1, which excludes the United States and which includes China subject to conditions, it has been said. learned Friday from diplomatic sources. The list was drawn up at a meeting of ambassadors from EU countries and the Schengen area on Friday evening. Some of them did not express an opinion, and the capitals have until 6 p.m. on Saturday to give an answer, according to several European sources, after which the Croatian EU presidency will decide what to do.
The proposed list contains fourteen countries: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay. China is added to it, on condition of reciprocity, that is to say on the condition that it receives on its soil travelers coming from the EU, according to a diplomatic source. Travelers from Andorra, Monaco, the Vatican and San Marino are also admitted.
The list therefore does not include the United States, the country most affected by the coronavirus pandemic, both in number of deaths and of cases, with 124,732 deaths for 2.4 million cases. No more than Brazil or Russia. It should be revised every two weeks, according to a European source.
If border control remains a competence of each State, the EU is trying to coordinate as much as possible on the question of travelers to authorize on its soil, because of the free movement which resumes in the Schengen area, with the lifting of the restrictions decided to fight against the coronavirus. Non-essential travel to the EU has been banned since mid-March. This measure must be gradually lifted from July 1, favoring visitors from countries whose epidemiological situation is similar to that of the EU, where the pandemic has subsided, or even better.
Some tourist countries are eager to reopen without delay. Greece, for its part, began on June 15 to reopen its airports to several non-EU countries, including China, New Zealand and South Korea. “We urge that an agreement be reached quickly”, Spanish government spokeswoman Maria Jesus Montero said today.
The European proposal sets several epidemiological criteria for a country to be on the admitted list, in particular a rate of new cases of Covid-19 close to or below 16 per 100,000 inhabitants (average in the EU) over the last 14 days. But also a tendency for stability or a decrease in new cases, as well as the measures put in place by a country to fight against the pandemic, including the practice of tests. Several Member States have however judged “Problematic” the reliability of epidemiological data provided by third countries, in particular China.
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