EU Reopens Its Borders to 14 Nations but Not to U.S. Tourists

The European Union announced Tuesday that it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S.

Travelers from other big countries like Russia, Brazil and India will also miss out.

As Europe’s economies reel from the impact of the coronavirus, southern EU countries like Greece, Italy and Spain are desperate to entice back sun-loving visitors and breathe life into their damaged tourism industries.

More than 15 million Americans are estimated to travel to Europe each year, while some 10 million Europeans head across the Atlantic.

Citizens from the following countries will be allowed into the EU’s 27 members and four other nations in Europe’s visa-free Schengen travel zone: Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

The EU said China is “subject to confirmation of reciprocity,” meaning it must lift all restrictions on European citizens entering China before it will allow Chinese citizens back in.

Countries considered for the safe list are also expected to lift any bans they might have in place on European travelers. The list is to be updated every 14 days, with new countries being added and some even dropping off depending on whether they are keeping the disease under control.

Still, many people both inside and outside Europe remain wary of travel in the coronavirus era, given the unpredictability of the pandemic and the possibility of second waves of infection that could affect flights and hotel bookings. Tens of thousands of travelers had a frantic, chaotic scramble in March to get home as the pandemic swept across the world and borders slammed shut.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States has surged over the past week, and President Donald Trump also suspended the entry of all people from Europe’s ID check-free travel zone in a decree in March.

In contrast, aside from a notable recent outbreak tied to a slaughterhouse in western Germany, the virus’s spread has generally stabilized across much of continental Europe.

European Union countries hastily slapped restrictions on who could cross their borders in February as the virus spread in Italy. Then in mid-March the Europeans limited all non-essential travel to the 27 EU member states plus Liechtenstein, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Non-EU citizens who are already living in Europe are not included in the ban.

The EU list does not apply to travel to Britain, which left the EU in January. Britain now requires all incoming travelers — bar a few exceptions like truck drivers — to go into a self-imposed 14-day quarantine, although the measure is under review and is likely to ease in the coming weeks. The requirement also applies to U.K. citizens.

‹

Europe Launches a Drive To Attract Scientists and Researchers After Trump Freezes US Funding

The European Union launched a drive to attract American scientists and researchers to Europe with offers of grants and new policy plans.

Most Major Nations Lag in Acting on Climate-Fighting Goals

Written by SETH BORENSTEIN For most of the major carbon-polluting nations, promising to fight climate change is a lot easier than actually doing it. In the United States, President Joe Biden has learned that the hard way. Among the 10 biggest carbon emitters, only the European Union has enacted polices close to or consistent with international goals […]

US To Expand Russia Sanctions, Accept 100K Ukraine Refugees

Written by CHRIS MEGERIAN, LORNE COOK and AAMER MADHANI The United States will expand its sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine, targeting members of the country’s parliament and the central bank’s gold reserves, the White House announced Thursday. At the same time, Washington will increase its humanitarian assistance by welcoming 100,000 […]

EU to Recommend Reinstating Restrictions on US Travelers

Written by SAMUEL PETREQUIN The European Union plans to recommend that its 27 nations reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infection levels there, EU diplomats said Monday. A decision to remove the U.S. from a safe list of countries for nonessential travel would reverse advice from June, when the bloc […]

Belarus' Isolation Deepens as Flights Avoid Its Airspace

Written by VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV Belarus’ isolation deepened Tuesday as commercial planes avoided its airspace, the European Union worked up new sanctions, and a senior U.N. official said he was concerned for the welfare of an opposition journalist arrested in Minsk after his plane was diverted there, apparently on the orders of the country’s longtime strongman. After […]

Audit: NC Pandemic Aid Managers Fell Short Keeping up on $3B

Written by GARY D. ROBERTSON North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration failed to thoroughly monitor how $3.1 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds it oversaw last year were being used, increasing the risk for misuse, a state audit said Thursday. The report from State Auditor Beth Wood’s office focuses on federal funds that the state received toward COVID-19 […]

World Trade Body Chief Says Vaccine Inequity ‘Unacceptable’

The head of the World Trade Organization called Thursday for expanded capability in developing countries to manufacture vaccines, saying the gaping imbalance in access to coronavirus vaccines that mostly favors rich, developed countries was unacceptable. WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said she supports the creation of a framework that would give developing countries “some automaticity and […]

Astrazeneca: U.S. Data Shows Vaccine Effective for All Ages

Written by MARIA CHENG and LAURAN NEERGAARD AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States, the company announced Monday. AstraZeneca said its experts did not identify any safety concerns related to the vaccine, including finding no […]

Cooper Says He'll Sign North Carolina COVID-19 Aid Package

North Carolina’s Democratic governor announced Friday that he will sign a Republican-authored plan to spend $1.1 billion of the state’s remaining federal COVID-19 relief funds on aid to families with children, unemployment benefits and efforts to fight the virus. Gov. Roy Cooper’s announcement came a day after he received the package from legislators. It includes […]

EU Reopens Its Borders to 14 Nations but Not to U.S. Tourists

The European Union announced Tuesday that it will reopen its borders to travelers from 14 countries, but most Americans have been refused entry for at least another two weeks due to soaring coronavirus infections in the U.S. Travelers from other big countries like Russia, Brazil and India will also miss out. As Europe’s economies reel from the […]

›