The holiday season has started for many or is imminent. According to a new decision, however, only the citizens of a few countries can still enter the EU. The countries that hardly report new infections and even allow EU citizens to enter the country are rewarded.
The EU countries want to maintain the entry restrictions imposed by the corona pandemic for people from the USA and numerous other third countries for the time being. Only people from 14 countries should be allowed to enter the country normally again from July 1, as the dpa learned after the initiation of a corresponding decision-making process by EU diplomats. Specifically, these are Algeria, Australia, Georgia, Japan, Canada, Morocco, Montenegro, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay. China should only be taken into account if, in return, it also removes entry restrictions for Europeans.
An official announcement of the decision is expected on Tuesday. It is certain that the required majority of the EU countries will come together, otherwise the written procedure for the decision would not have been initiated. According to the proposed resolution, the number of new corona infections in the two weeks before will be decisive for easing entry restrictions in the future. In addition, the trend over the same period and how the respective state deals with the pandemic should also play a role.
Specifically, it is envisaged that the number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants within the past two weeks should be “close to or below 16” – in other words, as the EU average. The trend of new cases in the same period should be “stable or decreasing” compared to the previous 14 days. Measures for contact tracking of infected people, the number of tests and containment efforts are to play a role in the handling of states with Covid-19. Citizens from countries heavily affected by the corona pandemic, such as the United States and Russia, would therefore initially be left out. There were last 60 to 120 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in 14 days. For countries like Brazil and Saudi Arabia, an overview by the EU health authority ECDC on Sunday even mentions a value of 120 or more cases. The overview does not provide any information about the trend.
Restrictions are checked continuously
In order to take into account the development of the number of infections, the entry restrictions should be continuously checked. The question of whether EU citizens can travel to the respective third country should also be included. In China, for example, despite comparatively low infection numbers, there is still an entry ban for EU foreigners.
To curb the coronavirus pandemic, all EU states except Ireland and the non-EU states Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland agreed in mid-March to initially ban travel to the EU that was not absolutely necessary. The entry stop had been extended several times and is currently valid until the end of June.
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