The EU removes Japan, another five countries from the list of safe travel

BRUSSELS, Sept 9 (Reuters) – The European Union has removed Japan and five other countries from its list of safe travel destinations, meaning visitors or people returning from those countries are likely to face off. to stricter controls such as COVID-19 testing or quarantine.

Following a review, the governments of the 27 EU member states agreed to leave Japan, along with Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei and Serbia, the European Council said on Thursday. Uruguay has been added to the list.

With the changes, the EU’s safe list engages 12 countries, including Australia, Canada and Saudi Arabia. The Chinese territories of Hong Kong and Macao are also considered safe.

The block still allows the majority of non-EU visitors who are fully vaccinated, although trials and quarantine periods may apply, depending on the EU country of arrival.

The list seeks to unify travel rules across the block, advising that restrictions be removed. However, it does not bind individual EU nations, which are free to determine their own border policies.

Germany, for example, already added Albania, Azerbaijan, Japan and Serbia to the list of “high-risk areas” for which stricter entry restrictions apply on Sunday.

The daily average of COVID-19 cases in the six countries removed from the EU safety list has risen sharply, from less than 40 per million people at the end of June to more than 100 a week until 8 September , according to data from Our World in Data, with Serbia at 593.

However, the percentage of cases in Japan has fallen in the last two weeks to almost exactly the same as in Germany.

Reports by Philip Blenkinsop Edited by Mark Heinrich

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