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Hugging at last: At the beginning of June, a mother and daughter see each other again after 10 months - in the terminal of Madrid Airport
Photo: Alejandro Martínez Vélez / dpa
People from the USA and several other countries will be able to enter the European Union more easily in the future.
This was confirmed by the Portuguese Council Presidency after discussions with the permanent representatives of the EU countries.
The travel restrictions imposed for the eight countries due to the corona pandemic should therefore be lifted.
This should also apply to people who have not yet been vaccinated.
However, the EU member states can still prescribe negative corona tests or quarantine.
The relaxed rules apply to the USA as well as Serbia, North Macedonia, Albania, Lebanon, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese Macau Special Administrative Region.
As early as May, the member states cleared the way for people who were fully vaccinated from most third countries to enter the country.
Portugal, which currently holds the presidency of the EU countries and is heavily dependent on tourism, campaigned for the new relief.
New criteria for restrictions
Due to the worldwide spread of the corona virus, the EU decided in March of last year to generally prohibit non-essential entries from third countries.
So far, only eight countries have been exempt from the entry stop due to a good corona situation: Australia, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
In mid-May, the EU governments agreed to relax the criteria for the restrictions.
The threshold for exemptions from the entry ban has been increased from 25 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 75 cases within 14 days.
lau / dpa / AFP