The European Union decides on Saturday on a list of 14+1 countries outside the block whose citizens will be allowed to enter EU on July 1.The countries reportedly fulfill the epidemiological criteria with infections to be at the average EU level or even lower. Among them are Australia, Japan, Canada and Lebanon. The list reportedly does not include the U.S., Russia, Turkey and Brazil. It should be noted that the ban or “green light” refer to departure airports and not travelers’ nationality.
According to European sources, among the countries from which citizens will be able to enter the EU are Australia, Lebanon, Algeria and Rwanda, while the United States is not included.
According to international media, the ‘safe’ countries list includes:
Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Montenegro, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay, Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican,
China will also be included, as long as China allows European Union visitors in the context of reciprocity.
European Union officials confirmed on Friday that the EU would bar American travelers when it reopens its external borders on July 1, The New York Times reported.
The US is among dozens of countries deemed too risky because their coronavirus outbreaks are poorly contained, according to NYT.
The list has been finalized and is to be voted electronically by the 27 ambassadors early Saturday evening. It will be officially released next week. According to some media, it will be reviewed every two weeks.
The list has been backed by most countries’ EU ambassadors but still must be formalized by member states.
Greece and Portugal reportedly wanted to expand the list, but Germany and some other member states did not.
Member states are not legally required to abide by the list, those that do not could see other EU states close their borders to them. Some countries with economies that are especially dependent on tourism are expected to allow more foreigners by implementing health-screening protocols for arriving visitors.
Big disagreements amongst 27 EU members over which non-EU/Schengen nations should be included in an initial list of ‘safe’ countries. Greece and Portugal currently blocking proposals. They want a longer list, allowing in travellers from more countries. #covid19 /1
— katya adler (@BBCkatyaadler) June 26, 2020
Well. The EU engages in yet another fiasco, even better than the mess they created with the eurozone crisis a decade ago.
If you go to look at the official EU sites concerning Schengen, you will see that there is no info at all on the alleged proposals for restricting (or not) travel from non-EU countries. No draft proposals, no documents or explanations at all. Why?!
I can tell you why. There is no legal basis for restricting travel according to airport of origin. The only legal bases available are (1) temporary closure of borders for exceptional reasons of security (already done); and restrictions on travel according to the nationality of travellers (i.e. their passports). There is no provision of any sort in the EU Treaties or the Schengen Treaties on restricting travel according to country of flight departure. That is why the useless Schengeninfo website (a private site, nothing to do with Schengen) is talking about restrictions according to the nationality of the traveller. Absolute nonsense, of course.
The European Commission refers obliquely to “internal discussion” to hide the fact that there is no legal basis for any restrictions. This is going to be another semi-legal semi-illegal political decision imposed by Germany et al. and with Greece told to do as it is told. Moreover, it is not lawful to prevent your own citizens (e.g. Greeks in the USA) from returning to their own homeland. This has already happened across the world, with Indians, Pakistanis and others stranded in foreign countries with no job and no money — just because their governments decided that the law does not matter.
As I have stated many times here, I am opposed to opening up Greece to diseased tourists. However, if there is anything more important than keeping out disease it is making politicians obey the law and respect the rights of their citizens. The EU is standing over a precipice, and seems likely to fall into an authoritarian, anti-democratic chasm of illegality. The eurozone illegalities were merely a warm-up for this new crisis of democracy.