EU agrees to drop U.S. from list of Covid-safe countries for travel

EU agrees to drop the U.S. from the list of Covid-safe countries for travel meaning arrivals will have to quarantine.

European Union governments have agreed they will remove the United States from the EU’s safe travel list. This means that all U.S. visitors, and those from five other countries, will soon face tighter controls, such as COVID-19 tests and quarantines.

As well as the US, Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia have also been taken off. The list seeks to unify travel rules across the bloc, although it does not bind individual EU nations, which can use their veto’s and are free to determine their own border policies.

Some EU countries, such as Germany and Belgium, categorise the United States as red, requiring tests and quarantines. However, France and the Netherlands classify the United States as safe.

The list is largely compiled on the basis of the COVID-19 situation in each country, with reciprocity also a major factor in the determination.

Average daily U.S. COVID-19 cases have risen to more than 450 per million people in the week to Aug 28, compared with below 40 in mid-June when the European Union added the United States to its list, according to figures from Our World in Data.

The data reveals that case rates for Israel, Kosovo and Montenegro are even higher now.

The EU safe list now comprises 17 countries which include Canada, Japan and New Zealand. The bloc still allows in most non-EU visitors who are fully vaccinated, although tests and periods of quarantine can apply, and depend fully on the EU country of arrival.

More than 15 million Americans a year visited Europe before the coronavirus crisis, and new travel restrictions could cost Europe billions in lost revenue.

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