Member States' ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper) will meet again on Friday 26 June to try to finalise the European list of third countries whose nationals will be allowed to return to the EU after 1 July because they have contained the Covid-19 pandemic on their territory.
A new meeting on this subject did not allow the work to be finalised on Wednesday 24 June. But the objective of the Member States is to be ready by 1 July. This would, at this stage, target a limited list of 10 to 15 third countries, depending on the source.
However, discussions have progressed on the criteria on the basis of which a European list of countries can be drawn up, such as the thresholds of infections to be taken into account. But there is still data to be updated.
Coreper considered in particular whether the threshold to be taken into account should be that of 16 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, as proposed by the Croatian Presidency of the Council in a preparatory document (https://bit.ly/2VgDPcm ), or a range of 16 to 20 infections per 100,000 inhabitants, the epidemiological criterion being the main criterion for inclusion on the list. The Member States opted for the threshold of 16 infections per 100,000 inhabitants and all agreed that the epidemiological criterion should remain the primary condition for lifting travel restrictions.
This is followed by the criteria on sustained downward trends, and then the way in which the third country has managed the pandemic and put protective measures in place. Data reliability is another important issue for the EU-27. Finally, the principle of reciprocity is in addition to these six criteria and could be used as a positive lever (see EUROPE 12516/6).
Once the list of third countries has been finalised, the national authorities will have to refer to it. This list will then be reviewed every 2 weeks.
According to several media outlets, the United States would logically not be on this list, since it has a higher threshold of infections than European countries. This is also the case in Brazil and Russia.
Updating the data
By Friday, Member States will have new data from the European ECDC centre in their possession, whereas the data currently available to them dates from 15 June. The list can then be fine-tuned.
The situation may have changed in the meantime, as in the EU, where new outbreaks of infection have appeared, for example in Germany or even Croatia, without, however, being such as to reintroduce border control measures at the internal borders of the Schengen area.
In any case, the opening of the EU's external borders can only take place if all Member States have first lifted the restrictions that still applied between them a few days ago (see EUROPE 12500/1). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)