Europe to reopen borders to vaccinated global tourists

Dreaming of a European summer holiday? Well, that could soon be a reality as the EU votes to ease border restrictions - but there’s a catch.

The European Union has agreed to open its borders to vaccinated travellers from around the world, after more than a year in which travel into the bloc has been severely restricted.

Meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, diplomats also agreed to increase the level of new cases a country can hit before being declared unsafe – a measure that would open up travel into the EU from more places.

According to the Washington Post, officials said the reopening could take effect within days of final approval, which may be as early as this week or next.

“Today, EU ambassadors agreed to update the approach to travel from outside the European Union,” European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told reporters.

It is understood the European Council “now recommends that member states ease some restrictions, in particular for those vaccinated with an EU-authorised vaccine.”

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Passengers from places like the US could travel into Europe without needing to quarantine. But the catch is they must have been vaccinated. Picture: Kena Betancur/AFP

Essentially, that means all the coronavirus vaccines available in the United States would be greenlighted, but vaccines manufactured in Russia and China would not be.

But one thing could throw a spanner in the works.

Some EU countries require quarantines of all new arrivals, regardless of vaccination status. This applies for countries like Belgium and France, which both require seven days of quarantine for new arrivals.

The European Commission can only make recommendations – individual countries do not have to follow them. Picture: Ben Fathers/AFP

The European Commission can only issue recommendations on such issues, with actual policies up to individual countries.

Currently, non-essential travel into the EU is banned, however there is the exception of a small number of countries categorised as safe due to their low COVID-19 case rate.