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The European Union is Set to Reopen to Vaccinated Visitors, Including Americans, later this Summer. The European Council, made up of Ambassadors from the 27 EU countries, approved the measures to allow fully vaccinated visitors, and to expand the list of eligible countries from which visitors can come from. Each individual EU country must still approve the European Council's recommendations, and approval could come as early as tomorrow. Greece has already reopened to Americans, Iceland has reopened, and Italy reopened to Americans just days ago.
Currently, only seven countries are permitted to send tourists to the EU, and the U.S. isn't one of them. The listed countries could soon be expanded, depending on their epidemiological status. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is to advise on which countries should be added to the list.
In terms of vaccinations, visitors must be fully vaccinated (at least 2 weeks after the final dose) of any of the 5 vaccines approved for emergency use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA):
- Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech)
- Moderna
- Vaxzevria (AstraZeneca)
- Janssen (Johnson & Johnson)
- Sinopharm
Something to keep in mind is that the UK, which exited the EU on 1/31/20, still has strict rules for Americans seeking to enter, including a mandatory quarantine. Visitors from the U.S. and other countries on the UK's “amber list” must not only provide a negative result from a COVID-19 PCR test taken in the 72 hours prior to arrival, but must also quarantine and take a PCR test (at the traveler's expense) on at least day 5 of their quarantine under the “test to release” option. Only if the test is negative may a traveler from an amber list country be released from quarantine. The alternative is to quarantine for a full 10 days.
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