The United States, where the coronavirus continues to spread, will remain excluded. (File)
Brussels:
The EU agreed on Tuesday to open its borders to 15 countries from July 1, but the United States, where the coronavirus is still spreading, will remain excluded.
China is on the list, which will be updated every two weeks, but on the condition that Beijing does the same for the Europeans, said a statement.
The American neighbor Canada as well as Japan, Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay were included unconditionally on the list established by the diplomats Friday, but requiring final approval.
Algeria, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia completed the countries, which was approved by vote among the 27 member states of the EU.
Non-essential travel to the EU has been banned since mid-March, but only after member states have closed their national borders in confusion and without coordination as the pandemic has developed.
Although the list is not legally binding, the EU said that member states “remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation”.
National authorities “should not decide to lift travel restrictions … until it has been decided in a coordinated manner,” the statement added.
Britain is considered part of the EU during its post-Brexit transition which ends on December 31.
The initial objective was to reopen to countries with an epidemiological situation that was “comparable or better” than that of the bloc – that is to say with 16 cases or less of COVID-19 per 100,000 inhabitants in the last two weeks .
However, health-based criteria collided with national interests and geopolitics, with some countries reluctant to collectively ban the United States while welcoming visitors from China, where the pandemic began.
To break the deadlock, Croatia, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, launched a silent approval process on Monday, which ended on Tuesday.
EU citizens and their family members should be exempt from the ban as well as long-term EU residents and their family members, the statement said.
The list is considered a maximum position with countries capable of further limiting it.
The United States is currently the country most affected by COVID-19 with more than 125,000 deaths while daily infection rates in Europe have stabilized.
(With the exception of the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
