U.S. Removed from European Union’s Travel ‘Safe List’

If you live in the U.S. and are thinking of planning a trip to Europe this fall, you may want to pay close attention to travel restrictions that may soon be back in place.

Due to surging covid-19 cases across the U.S., the Council of the European Union is once again recommending that its member nations restrict non-essential travel from the United States. This comes just two months after the E.U. welcomed back vaccinated and covid-19 tested travelers.

Countries within the 27-nation bloc, including France, Italy and Germany, were advised to reinstate coronavirus-related restrictions and pause the arrival of tourists from the U.S. and five other countries. Although these recommendations were made, the guidance is non-binding, meaning individual nations get to manage their own borders and travel restrictions, according to CNN.

“The Council recommendation is not a legally binding instrument,” the Council said in its announcement. “The authorities of the member states remain responsible for implementing the content of the recommendation.”

This change, which was issued Monday, comes as delta variant cases continue to rise in the United States. Per the Council, a nation to be considered ‘safe’ is that there are “not more than 75 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the previous 14 days,” along with other testing and positive-case-rate standards, and “overall response to COVID-19.”  According to the CDC, the total number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States has been more than 11,000 per 100,000 for the past two weeks. Most recently, 11,810 cases per 100,000 were reported.

The non-binding guidance “is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travellers,” the Council said in a statement. “As stipulated in the Council recommendation, this list will continue to be reviewed regularly” and may be updated.

Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia have also been taken off the ‘safe list.’