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People enjoy the sun in May from the café terraces of the Grand Place in Brussels. On Friday, the European Union added the United States to the list of countries whose citizens and residents must be allowed to travel freely within the bloc. Francois Walcshaerts/AFP via Getty Images Hide caption
Toggle caption Francois Walcshaerts/AFP via Getty Images
People enjoy the sun in May from the café terraces of the Grand Place in Brussels. On Friday, the European Union added the United States to the list of countries whose citizens and residents must be allowed to travel freely within the bloc.
Francois Walcharts/AFP via Getty Images
Americans can now visit the European Union again, whether or not they have been vaccinated. The European Council has updated its list of countries whose citizens and residents should be allowed to travel freely to the bloc’s 27 member states, and the United States is finally on the list.
But before you get on a plane, be aware of the possibility of a catch. In fact, there can be 27 different combinations of them. While the updated list published on Friday is a recommendation on who might be granted entry based on the health status of their home country, each EU government makes its own border decisions. This includes which nationalities must be accepted, whether PCR or rapid MERS-CoV tests are required on arrival, and whether quarantine is mandatory. And while the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, categorically urges countries to coordinate such rules with their neighbors to ensure mobility, this appeal has often fallen on administrative deaf ears.
There is another factor that EU governments may consider when deciding whether to grant access to US travelers: reciprocity. The US government has not yet lifted its ban on non-essential travel for Europeans. It’s a sore point. “It goes without saying that we expect the same from non-EU partner countries for EU citizens traveling to those countries,” said European Commission spokesperson, Adalbert Ganz.
The US-EU summit on Tuesday gave new hope to Europeans hoping to head west.
“We have received assurances that this is a matter of the highest priority for the US administration,” Ganz said, adding that a joint working group met on Friday with the goal of “re-starting safe and sustainable travel between the European Union and the United States.”
Alberto Alemanno, Professor of European Union Law and Politics at HEC Business School in Paris, believes that the US’s reluctance to open its borders to European tourists is largely due to “a negative perception of the EU’s handling of the pandemic – particularly its slow vaccination programmes.” In other words, Europe is not seen as safe [yet]. “
But Gans is optimistic that this is changing. He noted that “the epidemiological situation in the European Union is improving.” “And we are, of course, putting in place a robust infrastructure to facilitate safe travel thanks to the EU’s Digital COVID Certification, which is designed to facilitate cross-border identification of test or vaccination cases.
He added: “So we hope to find viable solutions for the United States as well.”
Meanwhile, the European tourism sector is eagerly anticipating the return of its most profitable clients outside the European Union. Last year was a “disaster”, says Jeroen Robb, a spokesperson for Visit.Br Brussels, the Belgian capital’s tourism communications agency. Rob explained that 80% of visitors to Brussels usually come from abroad, many of them from the United States. “We are very happy to see American tourists return to our city.”
Eduardo Santander, executive director of the European Travel Commission, the umbrella organization for tourism agencies across the continent, also expressed optimism, but said important questions remain.
“We think this is a great start, but we still have to read the lowercase letters,” he said, urging potential travelers to do the same. “It will probably take two weeks for there to be certainty about all the little things a traveler has to consider before coming to Europe, and in particular, the issue of moving within the European Union” if governments do not coordinate border regulations.
Santander warns that the lack of reciprocity for European travelers wanting to go to the US could be a problem for Americans, too, because airlines will need people going in both directions to resume their itineraries. But he believes that by mid-July, things will go smoothly, and that this year’s peak season for tourism may last until autumn to meet pent-up demand.
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