Member States’ ambassadors to the EU gave the green light on 11 June to the revised recommendation on non-essential travel within the EU (see EUROPE 12730/1). The Commission welcomed the agreement, which comes 11 days after the presentation of its proposal.
It will allow vaccinated travellers with the EU Covid certificate (formally approved by the Energy Council on 11 June, Editor’s note) to be exempted from quarantine or testing when travelling to other Member States. The criteria will also be made more flexible for other travellers.
The Member States, which will however remain free to continue to impose restrictions if they decide to do so, have made three main changes.
They first expanded the thresholds proposed by the Commission to define the green, orange and red zones established by the ECDC. Several Member States had expressed concern that the thresholds set by the Commission put some countries at a disadvantage compared to tourists from third countries allowed to return to the EU by proposing almost similar thresholds for these third countries.
The final agreement, which is expected to be adopted on Monday 14 June in the Employment and Social Affairs Council, therefore includes the following criteria:
- green, if the 14-day cumulative Covid-19 case notification rate is less than 50 and the test positivity rate is less than 4% or if the case notification rate is less than 75 and the Covid-19 test positivity rate for infection is less than 1%;
- orange, if the 14-day cumulative notification rate is less than 50 and the positivity rate is greater than or equal to 4%, if the 14-day cumulative notification rate is greater than or equal to 50 but less than 75 and the test positivity rate is greater than or equal to 1%, or if the 14-day cumulative notification rate is between 75 and 200 and the test positivity rate is less than 4%;
- red, if the 14-day cumulative case notification rate is between 75 and 200 and the test positivity rate is greater than or equal to 4%, or if the cumulative number of cases over 14 days is greater than 200 but less than 500.
The Commission had proposed a notification rate of less than 75 for the orange and red zones, then between 25 and 150, and for the red zones, between 75 and 150 and between 150 and 500.
In parallel to this relaxation of thresholds, Member States have strengthened the language on the ‘emergency brake’ that can be activated if the health situation deteriorates, especially due to the different variants. Member States will therefore be able to re-introduce restrictions, if they wish, for fully vaccinated persons also.
No tests required for children under 12
Member States have further amended the age of children above which a negative test will be required from six years in the original proposal to 12 years. Children will also not have to undergo quarantine if their parents are properly vaccinated and exempted.
In addition, Member States have introduced the possibility of waiving the quarantine requirement after receiving the first dose of vaccine, as requested by some countries.
Link to the agreement: https://bit.ly/3ivSQ6A (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)