The twenty-seven member states of the EU have agreed to a revision of travel restrictions today, adapting them to the health situation of the traveller and not to the risk of coronavirus in the area from which they have come from, which means that the holders of an EU Covid Certificate will be able to travel freely among these countries without additional restrictions, despite the fact that a dozen European governments are already failing to comply with the recommendations agreed by the bloc.
The objective is to simplify the mobility rules during the pandemic which up until now were based on the ECDC "traffic light map" based on epidemiological situation in each area to establish a level of risk in that country.
This update now means that travellers who have an EU Covid Certificate as proof of full vaccination, as a recovery certificate, or to show a negative test prior to travel, will be able to move between Member States without any further restrictions, being exempt from quarantines, home isolation, or additional diagnostic tests upon arrival at their destination.
In actual fact, the vaccination certificate will now be valid for travel, nine months from the date of your second dose, and indefinitely if you have had a booster dose. As for diagnostic tests, the PCR will be maintained for a maximum period of 72 hours before travelling, while an antigen test now has to be carried out within 24 hours of departure as opposed to 48 before.
The EU's General Affairs ministers have given their approval to these changes which will come into effect from February 1st, although they are recommendations and not binding rules for member states, as they still have the power to control their own borders, so governments do have the option not follow these guidelines despite having agreed to them.
At the moment at least twelve countries have already moved away from the current recommendations and have imposed additional restrictions on travellers with an EU Covid Certificate who travel to their country, including France, Italy, Portugal, Germany or the Netherlands, who require extra tests.
EU COMMISSION WANTS NO UNJUSTIFIED RESTRICTIONS:
The European Commission has taken advantage of today’s review of the recommendations to warn these countries that the additional restrictions introduced to stop the advance of the omicron variant, are no longer justified given that it is already widely present in all member states.
The Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said earlier: "We ask all member states to quickly apply the common rules to ensure coordination and clarity for our citizens and travellers and to comply with the revised recommendations without delay".
The vice president of the Community Executive responsible for Inter-institutional Relations, Maros Sefcovic, has insisted on the need to guarantee that vaccinated Europeans will have "easier" travel within the EU territory without restrictions, "the measures must be proportionate and those vaccinated are much better protected," he said at the press conference after the meeting of the European ministers.
