Israelis excluded as EU reopens borders

The European Union today approved opening its borders to tourists from 14 countries but Israeli passport holders have been excluded from the list because of its high Covid-19 infection rate. From tomorrow, July 1, tourists will be allowed to enter EU countries without any need for self-isolation from: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Thailand, Rwanda, Uruguay, Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia.

UK citizens can enter because it is still officially a member of the EU even though it was not consulted about the reopening of the borders.

China will only be included on the list if it relaxes its requirement for EU citizens to self-isolate for 14 days when entering China.

The US, Brazil and dozens of other countries will be barred from entering the EU because their infection rates are too high. The EU criteria for admitting foreign passport holders is that new infections over the past two weeks have not exceeded 16 per 100,000 citizens (similar to the average infection rate in the EU) and that the number of new infections in the past two weeks is stable compared with the previous two weeks.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the number of new cases in Israel over the past two weeks is 3,978 (an average of 45 per 100,000 citizens) and the number of new infections has risen over the past two weeks compared with the previous two weeks.

The EU in Brussels announced that it would review the situation and update the list every two weeks with countries meeting the criteria added to the list, if the EU Commissioner on Diseases and the member government approve the change.

According to the agreement individual member EU countries can block entry from citizens of any of the 14 countries on the list if they so wish. The list of countries cause controversy and dispute because of the insistence of barring US citizens while Chinese citizens could be allowed in if they relax their own restrictions.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on June 30, 2020

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