falcon10

• Council of the EU
• Press release
• 30 June 2020
• 15:30

Council agrees to start lifting travel restrictions for residents of some third countries

The Council today adopted a recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU. 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.

Based on the criteria and conditions set out in the recommendation, as from 1 July member states should start lifting the travel restrictions at the external borders for residents of the following third countries:

• Algeria
• Australia
• Canada
• Georgia
• Japan
• Montenegro
• Morocco
• New Zealand
• Rwanda
• Serbia
• South Korea
• Thailand
• Tunisia
• Uruguay

• China, subject to confirmation of reciprocity

Residents of Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican should be considered as EU residents for the purpose of this recommendation.

The criteria to determine the third countries for which the current travel restriction should be lifted cover in particular the epidemiological situation and containment measures, including physical distancing, as well as economic and social considerations. They are applied cumulatively.

Regarding the epidemiological situation, third countries listed should meet the following criteria, in particular:

• number of new COVID-19 cases over the last 14 days and per 100 000 inhabitants close to or below the EU average (as it stood on 15 June 2020)
• stable or decreasing trend of new cases over this period in comparison to the previous 14 days
• overall response to COVID-19 taking into account available information, including on aspects such as testing, surveillance, contact tracing, containment, treatment and reporting, as well as the reliability of the information and, if needed, the total average score for International Health Regulations (IHR). Information provided by EU delegations on these aspects should also be taken into account.

Reciprocity should also be taken into account regularly and on a case-by-case basis.

For countries where travel restrictions continue to apply, the following categories of people should be exempted from the restrictions:

• EU citizens and their family members
• long-term EU residents and their family members
• travellers with an essential function or need, as listed in the Recommendation.

Schengen associated countries (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) also take part in this recommendation.

Next steps

The Council 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.

This list of third countries should be reviewed every two weeks and may be updated by the Council, as the case may be, after close consultations with the Commission and the relevant EU agencies and services following an overall assessment based on the criteria above.

Travel restrictions may be totally or partially lifted or reintroduced for a specific third country already listed according to changes in some of the conditions and, as a consequence, in the assessment of the epidemiological situation. If the situation in a listed third country worsens quickly, rapid decision-making should be applied.

Background

On 16 March 2020, the Commission adopted a communication recommending a temporary restriction of all non-essential travel from third countries into the EU for one month. EU heads of state or government agreed to implement this restriction on 17 March. The travel restriction was extended for a further month respectively on 8 April 2020 and 8 May 2020.

On 11 June the Commission adopted a communication recommending the further extension of the restriction until 30 June 2020 and setting out an approach for a gradual lifting of the restriction on non-essential travel into the EU as of 1 July 2020. Discussions have since then taken place between member states on the criteria and methodology to be applied.

• Council recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU

YYZjim

Poor Kiwis. They have locked themselves down so tightly that they haven't had any Covid cases for weeks. While that sounds like perfection, there's a hidden cost. Namely, that they'll have to stay locked down for the foreseeable future, and maybe even longer than that. Dr. Fauci was in the news again today, bemoaning the fact that the U.S. is sailing through Covid with three sheets to the wind. But he had a second, even more discouraging, message. He warned that it's unlikely the U.S. will develop herd immunity even once a vaccine is available, which he predicts will be in early 2021. He said this "was due to the combination of a vaccine that is only partially effective, and the large number of Americans who might refuse to get it." If the vaccine is not effective enough to confer herd immunity, then a whole bunch of locking down will either have been useless or it will have to continue indefinitely.

FlightlessParrot

Just to put the record straight, NZ is not locked down internally. The restrictions are at the border, where only NZ citizens and permanent residents are allowed to enter, and must go through 14 days of managed isolation, or quarantine if they test positive. Internally, there are no restrictions, not even a requirement for masks, though people are still a bit cautious. Certainly, a closed border is a big deal for a trading country with a big tourism industry, whose citizens like to travel, and the way out isn't clear at the moment.

kiwi grey

Yes
It's just starting to dawn on NZ businesses based around international tourism that, by and large, they don't have a business anymore, and have no prospect of having one for at least another twelve months, potentially much, much longer.
The leader of the main Opposition party gave a speech to a business group last week in which he said that this was an untenable situation, we need to re-open our borders lickety split. By this morning, the public reaction had been sufficient that he was walking back from it and waffling on about how what was needed was "greater certainty". The certainty of the borders staying shut was, of course, not what he was talking about!

It appears that the NZ voting public are far more scared of Covid-19 than they are of a massive rise in unemployment.
This may be influenced, I observe somewhat cynically, by the fact that the worst impacts of the unemployment are going to be felt by the younger people in the 'gig economy', who have a lower propensity to vote than those who have retained their jobs.