Civil Protection officers attend the arrival of travelers at the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on April 25, 2021.IAN LANGSDON / POOL / EFE
One more step towards a post-covid world and the return of tourism.
The European Union has agreed this Wednesday to reopen the external borders to travelers from third countries who have been vaccinated with any of the drugs authorized in the EU.
The measure, which has received the go-ahead from the 27 through their European ambassadors, will be officially approved tomorrow by the EU Council, arriving just in time for the start of the summer campaign.
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The new regulation, with the rank of a Recommendation, indicates that Member States “should lift the temporary restriction of non-essential travel to the EU with respect to third-country nationals (...) who have received the last recommended dose of a of vaccines against covid-19 authorized in the EU ”at least 14 days before entering the Schengen zone, according to community sources with access to the text.
The measure offers a community framework to countries to give access to foreign immunized without additional restrictions, such as PCR tests or quarantines.
The regulation goes a step further and calls for the opening of community boundaries to tourists from third countries where immunization has been carried out with any of the injections that appear on the World Health Organization emergency use list. (WHO).
On this list is, since the beginning of May, the Chinese Sinopharm, but for the moment not the Russian Sputnik V.
The proposal was launched by the European Commission just over two weeks ago after assessing the latest scientific advice showing that immunization helps break the chain of transmission.
And it asks the capitals to take into account the "principle of reciprocity", with the aim of encouraging third countries to also tear down their PCR and quarantine walls.
The project of the Community Executive has followed a priority lane in Brussels, achieving the green light from the European bloc in a much shorter time than usual. Meanwhile, the negotiation of the European vaccination certificate is progressing in parallel, a proposal that is currently stuck in the discussions between the European Parliament and the Council, but already in the testing phase and whose adoption is expected in June. This misnamed European vaccination passport will be the basis on which the member states must measure the equivalence with similar certificates from third countries.
The recommendation also reopens the borders to those countries with an infection rate lower than 75 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, whether or not tourists from those territories are immunized.
Until now, the EU recommended closing access to those foreign regions with more than 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
The objective of Brussels, whose change of criteria has been inspired by the scientific advice of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), has been to adjust the scales to the current situation: under the previous thresholds, only non-journeys were allowed. essential from seven countries.
The European Executive now hopes to reach about a hundred countries.
Emergency break
Despite the fact that vaccination rates are advancing at a good pace, or at least they are in one part of the globe, the EU is aware that the pandemic still lurks in many other corners, and that its effects and possible mutations remain unpredictable . European regulation contemplates the possibility of using an "emergency brake" when "the epidemiological situation in a third country or region worsens rapidly." The measure calls for taking into account, above all, the "worrying or interesting variants." At that time, States will be able to retract their borders by applying an “urgent and temporary restriction” to all travel from this country, while safeguarding EU citizens, long-term residents in the EU and some categories. essential travelers.
To avoid possible chaos and a cascade of unilateral measures in the face of this type of health emergency, the norm provides that the Twenty-seven must review the situation "in a coordinated manner" within the Council, and in collaboration with the Community Executive. The imposition of restrictions should be reviewed every two weeks.