July 17, 2020 Update: the EU has updated their list of safe third countries. Please find the updated list here.
30 June, 2020 - As was expected, the Council of the European Union adopted a recommendation on the lifting of the ban on non-essential travel into the EU, and created a list of 15 "safe" third countries.
Travel restrictions should be lifted for countries listed in the recommendation, with this list being reviewed and, as the case may be, updated every two weeks. The initial list, valid from July 1st, includes the following countries:
- Algeria
- Australia
- Canada
- Georgia
- Japan
- Montenegro
- Morocco
- New Zealand
- Rwanda
- Serbia
- South Korea
- Thailand
- Tunisia
- Uruguay
- China, subject to confirmation of reciprocity
The United States of America and Russia are noticeably absent from the list.
Residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and the Vatican should be considered as EU residents for the purpose of this recommendation. Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) also take part in this recommendation.
For countries where travel restrictions continue to apply, the following categories of people should continue to be exempted from the restrictions:
- EU citizens and their family members
- long-term EU residents and their family members
- travelers with an essential function or need, as listed in the Recommendation.
The Council highlights that the recommendation is not a legally binding instrument. The authorities of the member states remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation. They may, in full transparency, lift only progressively travel restrictions towards countries listed.
A Member State should not decide to lift the travel restrictions for non-listed third countries before this has been decided in a coordinated manner.
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