- Özgür Töre
The European Union today agreed to reopen its borders to visitors who have been fully vaccinated with an approved COVID-19 vaccine.
At today's meeting, ambassadors from the 27 member states agreed to reopen its borders to visitors who have been fully vaccinated with an approved shot, or those coming from a list of countries considered safe from a Covid.
The list of safe countries according to COVID-19 data will be announced on Friday.
“Today E.U. ambassadors agreed to update the approach to travel from outside the European Union,” said European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand.
Especially the tourism-dependent EU countries have struggled without travelers over the course of the pandemic, and Greece, Italy, Spain and others were looking to find a way to reopen safely. Greece already announced opening its doors to Americans. The UK also accepts Americans but they need to quarantine at least five days, regardless of whether they are vaccinated. Although UK is not in the EU, the quarantine rule for fully vaccinated may soon change.
EU will decide which vaccines are approved. Either vaccines approved by European Medicines Agency - EMA or by the World Health Organization. That covers the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Sinopharm vaccines.
