Europe enabled essential travel from the United States…

The European Union Gave the green light this Friday for a project Portugal It authorized non-essential travel from the United States and twelve other countries. In this way, the list of epidemiologically safe countries has been updated.

The ambassadors of the member states of the regional bloc agreed to the proposal of Portugal (which chairs the Council of the European Union until June 30). Albania, Australia, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Rwanda, Serbia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand join the United States in a list that is updated every two weeks.

The council also clarified that non-essential travel is permitted from the Chinese special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau, which so far require the principle of reciprocity, while maintaining this condition for China.

Thus, those traveling from these regions will be able to enter the European Union regardless of whether or not the same conditions apply to Europeans traveling to them. It is also recommended that non-essential travel from Taiwan be allowed.

The entry ban for visitors from the United States and other countries considered high-risk occurred under restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. The measure froze the flow of travelers, when more than 17 million people from the United States traveled to the Old World in the year prior to the COVID-19 crisis.

The criteria for determining the third countries from which travel restrictions should be lifted were updated on May 20. To determine which items are included in that list, a file . is used The epidemiological situation, the general response to MERS-CoV, and the reliability and availability of information. For citizens of the countries included in the list, each member state decides whether or not to impose quarantine on them upon their arrival in its territory.

On the other hand, the European Union has reached an agreement on the reform of the “single European sky”, a plan that seeks to improve air traffic management among the 27 members of the bloc. Now the Council will be able to start negotiations on the final form of the text with the European Parliament.

The European Commission launched the Single European Sky Initiative in 1999. It aims to increase capacity, improve profitability, increase resilience to changes in traffic and enhance safety, while reducing aviation’s carbon footprint, as indicated by the Council through a permit.