Europe has enabled essential travel from the United States …

The European Union gave the green light this Friday to a project of Portugal and authorized non-essential travel from the United States and twelve other countries. Thus, the list of epidemiologically safe countries has been updated.

The ambassadors of the Member States of the regional bloc approved the motion of Portugal (which until June 30 chairs the Council of the EU). Albania, Australia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand join the United States in a list put updated every two weeks.

The council also clarified that non-essential travel is allowed from the Chinese special administrative zones of Hong Kong and Macao, which until now required the principle of reciprocity, while this condition is maintained for China.

Thus, those traveling from these areas will be able to enter the EU, whether or not the same conditions apply to Europeans traveling there. It is also recommended that you allow non-essential travel from Taiwan.

The entry ban for visitors from the United States and other countries considered high-risk came amid restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The measure froze the flow of travelers, as the year before the Covid-19 crisis, more than 17 million people had traveled from the United States to the Old World.

The criteria for determining third countries for which travel restrictions should be lifted were updated on May 20. To decide which ones are included in this list, the the epidemiological situation and the general response to the coronavirus, as well as the reliability and availability of information. For citizens of the countries on the list, each Member State decides whether or not to impose a quarantine on them upon their arrival on its territory.

On the other hand, the EU reached an agreement on the reform of the Single European Sky, a plan which aims to improve the management of air traffic between the 27 members of the bloc. From now on, the Council will be able to start negotiations on the final form of the text with the European Parliament.

The European Commission launched the Single European Sky initiative in 1999. It aims to increase capacity, improve profitability, increase the capacity to adapt to variations in traffic and improve safety, while reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation, as the Council points out in a statement.