However, the Commission is also calling for an “emergency brake” system that would suspend travel from a country if its epidemiological situation worsened rapidly.
The European Commission has proposed that member states ease the current restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU.
It says the move is to take into account the progress of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns and “developments in the epidemiological situation” worldwide.
The European Commission proposes to allow all people coming from countries with a safe epidemiological situation and all people who have received the last recommended dose of an EU-authorised vaccine to enter the EU for non-essential reasons.
It also proposes to raise the threshold on the number of new Covid-19 cases used to determine the list of countries from which all travel should be allowed.
Noting that concerning Covid-19 variants require “continued vigilance”, the Commission has also proposed a new “emergency brake” system to limit the risk of variants entering the EU.
In this system, when the epidemiological situation of a non-EU country worsens quickly and if a variant of concern is detected, a member state can temporarily suspend all inbound travel by non-EU citizens from that country.
The European Council now must consider the proposal. Once adopted by the Council, it will be up to member states to implement the measures set out in the recommendation.
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Aideen McQueen – Faith healers, Coolock craic and Gigging as Gaeilge
