The EU Council’s crisis response mechanism, the IPCR (an acronym for Integrated Political Crisis Response), has performed a new evaluation of the list of third countries for which non-essential travel restrictions should be lifted.
Taking into account the most recent information from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the European External Action Service (EEAS), the organism determined to add Indonesia to the list this week —a decision supported and confirmed by the Permanent Representatives Committee on 17 November 2021.
As it happens since 20 May 2021, the criteria to lift these travel restrictions are based on the country’s COVID-19 statistics from reliable sources, including infection rates (which much be inferior to 75 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), COVID-19 diagnostic test positivity rates (up to 4% out of 300 per 100,000 inhabitants) and vaccination rates from the last two weeks.
The EU Council checks these statistics for all third countries on a bi-monthly basis. After close consultation with the Commission and relevant EU agencies and services, the Council amends the Council Recommendation (EU) 2020/912 on the temporary restriction on non-essential travel into the EU and the possible lifting of such restriction, which includes an Annex with a list of all the third countries for which non-essential travel restrictions should be suspended. Any territory can be added or removed from the list according to the status of its sanitary situation.
With the addition of Indonesia to the list, the number of countries for which travel restrictions should be lifted ascends to 19. These are Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Canada, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Korea, China (including special administrative regions of Macau and Hong Kong, and the territorial authority of Taiwan), Rwanda, Namibia, Australia, New Zealand, and Indonesia. The case of China is subject to confirmation of reciprocity, though.
It’s important to note that no Member State of the European Union is forced to apply the Council’s recommendation, for which the travelers should verify each country’s particular decision on the matter before boarding.
Denmark, which is not bound by the recommendation according to Protocol 22 on the Position of Denmark but is part of the Schengen acquis, should take a decision within the next six months in accordance with the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
The rest of the European Union and Schengen area countries will be responding to the Council’s recommendation shortly. These are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Andorra, San Marino, Monaco, and the Vatican are included in the decision because they’re considered part of the European Union for the purpose of the Council’s recommendation.
Ireland, on the other hand, is not affected by the EU Council’s recommendation because it is not part of the Schengen acquis.
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