That odd vacation to Ibiza that you might have been mulling sometime this year will have to take a backseat. Come July 1, the European Union (EU) will be opening its borders to 15 countries outside its association. However, Americans do not feature on the list that saw the inclusion of China, the originating source of the corona-virus pandemic.
The EU will grant access to the Chinese only on the condition of mutual agreement from both sides with Beijing honoring the same. The other countries that made the cut are Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay. The guidelines rolled out mandates entry to only those countries whose infection rates are equal or superior to that of the union.
The USA is currently seeing the highest sum of confirmed infections in the world. Consequently, it is also witnessing the most number of deaths than any country in the world. The massive spike in COVID-19 infections saw Europe shut its border in March. The EU authorities emphasized it is hugely remote that the plan would be altered any time soon. The decision is to be reviewed every two weeks. Any future prospect about the US making the list depends on how drastically the ‘infection rate’ could be overturned.
“The restriction should be lifted for countries selected together by Member States, based on a set of principles and objective criteria including the health situation, the ability to apply containment measures during travel, and reciprocity considerations, taking into account data from relevant sources such as ECDC and WHO.”
The European Commission
On the brighter side, some countries like Greece and Portugal will start welcoming Americans across their respective borders. However, any attempts to cross over to neighboring countries will be duly curbed.
