European Travel Reopens to Visitors from 19 Countries

The European Union will carefully reopen travel on July 1st, and has finalized a safe list of 19 countries from which it will allow tourists. As expected, the United States is excluded.

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UPDATE 7/15/2020: The European Union will not add additional countries to its safe list. Instead, they are removing two countries from the list — Serbia and Montenegro — due to an increase in Covid-19 cases. Both countries have few restrictions on foreign travel.

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European Travel is back! Well, sort of. On July 1st, the E.U. will allow tourists from several countries to visit Europe for their summer vacation. The list was primarily based on epidemiology factors; although one country — China — will only make it onto the safe list if it reciprocally reopens its borders to E.U. residents.

According to the New York Times, the list is the European Union’s attempt to get all its members on the same page, allowing them to fully reopen internal borders within the Schengen area and between all 27 member states. While a European country could do its own thing, there’s a good chance that other European countries would then close their borders to the non-compliant countries. So there will be pressure to conform.

A Small European Travel Safe List

The safe list was hammered out on Friday, but European diplomats spent the weekend getting final approval from their national governments. There were no changes to the final safe list.

Europe is ready and waiting for you, starting July 1st, if you live in one of these 19 countries:

• Canada
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Japan
• Algeria
• Georgia
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• Rwanda
• Serbia
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• Uruguay
• Andorra
• San Marino
• Monaco
• Vatican City
• China (provisionally — must first allow European visitors reciprocally)

The E.U. will update the safe list every two weeks.

It’s not just a small safe list, but a few of those countries are in Europe and would be tough to exclude. Vatican City is in the middle of Rome. Monaco is tiny, and nearly surrounded by France. San Marino is totally surrounded by Italy. None are in the Schengen area, but all of them typically have open borders to the European Union.

The European bloc will grant exceptions for residents of countries not on the safe list, including transit passengers. You can travel through a European hub, so long as your final destination in not in the bloc. Most of the usual exceptions will be granted, as well: health care workers, students, asylum seekers, essential foreign workers, humanitarian workers, and family emergencies.

What About The United Kingdom?

Great Britain is in the midst of its Brexit transition period, which continues through December 31st. Brits must be treated the same as other E.U. citizens through the end of the year. If Covid-19 travel restrictions remain into 2021, the European Untion would need to discuss the U.K. and make decisions about any future restrictions.

Ireland / Greece / Iceland

UPDATE 7/1/2020: Iceland’s government says that the country will go along with new E.U. guidelines. The Greek government is doing the same. Greece will also continue its ban on direct flights from the UK and Sweden until July 15th.

One state is Three states are already doing things differently, as reported previously. Iceland, Greece and Ireland all currently allows American tourists, although two of those countries it requires a 14-day quarantine upon arrival. And Iceland requires either a quarantine or a Covid-19 swab when arriving at Keflavik Airport.

It’s too early to say what Ireland those countries will do. The government says it will finalize it plans for safe overseas travel very soon. The E.U. wants all member states and Schengen area participants to follow the same rules. I suspect most (if not all) will satisfy themselves with a limited number of tourists from the approved lists. We’ll know very soon.

Final Thoughts

Had Covid-19 not disrupted travel, my wife and I would be in Ireland right now. We’re instead planning to go at the end of summer.

But the spike in U.S. virus cases is not a hopeful sign. Few countries are keen to risk their own citizens’ health on a couple of Americans who want to kiss the Blarney Stone (I’ve heard that’s gross, actually?).

As the European Union reopens travels to residents of just 19 countries, we can only hope the safe list grows quickly. Just don’t expect the United States to make that list anytime soon, maybe not for several months. The U.S. is far from getting the novel coronavirus under control within its borders.

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Note: On 6/30/2020, this post was updated to add info and reflect that the list is now official.

[Photo: Colosseum, Rome by Diliff via Wikimedia Commons]