EU to open borders for COVID vaccinated tourists

US tourists who have been fully vaccinated against COVID will be able to visit the EU over the summer, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in an interview with The New York Times, Report informs.

The fast pace of vaccination in the US, and advanced talks between authorities there and the EU over how to make vaccine certificates acceptable as proof of immunity for visitors, will enable the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, to recommend a switch in policy that could see trans-Atlantic leisure travel restored.

“The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” Ursula von der Leyen noted. “This will enable free movement and the travel to the EU.

“Because one thing is clear: All 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by E.M.A.,” she added. The agency, the bloc’s drugs regulator, has approved all three vaccines being used in the US, namely the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson shots.

Ursula von der Leyen did not offer a timeline on when exactly tourist travel might open up or details on how it would occur. But her comments are a top-level statement that the current travel restrictions are set to change on the basis of vaccination certificates.

She added that resumption of travel would depend “on the epidemiological situation, but the situation is improving in the United States, as it is, hopefully, also improving in the European Union.”