On Wednesday 8 September, the ambassadors of the Member States to the European Union (Coreper) removed six countries, including Japan, from the joint list of third countries whose residents may enter the EU without health restrictions and without essential reason.
These countries are: Japan, Serbia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei and Albania. However, they decided to include Uruguay in the EU list.
In contrast to fully vaccinated travellers from these countries, non-vaccinated travellers will in principle be subject to restrictions when travelling to the EU, including the need to justify the purpose of their trip.
Member States regularly revisit this list of third countries established in June 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic evolves. They had recently removed the United States from this list of ‘safe’ countries (see EUROPE 12779/13).
The current list therefore includes sixteen countries, territories or administrative jurisdictions: Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Jordan, New Zealand, Qatar, Moldova, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Uruguay, Ukraine, China (subject to reciprocity), Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.
Coreper’s decision will be formalised in the coming days. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)