The European Union on Tuesday agreed to reopen its borders to 15 countries starting July 1 as it continues to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Singapore, India, the UAE and the United States failed to find a place on this list, which is to be revisited every two weeks.
Non-essential travel to the EU has been banned since mid-March and this reopening comes based on countries with similar or better control of the COVID-19 pandemic as the bloc itself.
The countries that are on the approved list are – Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Uruguay, Algeria, Georgia, Montenegro, Morocco, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand and Tunisia.
China is also on the list but conditional upon Beijing making the same allowance for Europeans.
The list is legally non-binding and the EU said member states "remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation."
National authorities "should not decide to lift the travel restrictions… before this has been decided in a coordinated manner," the statement added.
Travellers from this list of countries will most likely be able to go to Europe and then travel freely throughout the Schengen area, which includes 22 EU countries, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.