EU recommends gradual lifting of COVID restrictions on U.S. tourists
Tourists visit Malaga after disembarking from the cruise ship 'Mein Schiff 2' of the German travel giant TUI on June 15, 2021 in Malaga. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images)
Travelers from the United States will soon be able to visit most of Europe as coronavirus restrictions ease.
European Union members agreed Wednesday to recommend a gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions and added the United States to its safe travel list.
It will now be easier for American citizens to take a vacation in one of the EU's 27 member states.
Belgium's Prime Minister said he was looking forward to the resumption of travel while visiting a Pfizer vaccine plan with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
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"Of course, the vaccination pace is scaling up. The moment that we see that a big part of the population is double vaccinated and can prove that they are safe, travel will pick up again. And I would expect that over the course of this summer, and I would mean rather the beginning of the summer and not the end of the summer, travel will pick up again," said Alexander de Croo. "I mean, we have been separated across the Atlantic for too long due to the pandemic. The fact that travel picks up again shows that the vaccination approaches are working on both sides of the Atlantic."
The EU does not have a unified COVID-19 tourism or border policy but is working towards creating a joint digital travel certificate for people who have been vaccinated, freshly tested, or recently recovered from coronavirus.
In addition to the U.S., the EU added five other nations to its safe travel list: North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Lebanon and Taiwan.