Covid19: France opens its borders to new countries

Following a meeting on June 26, the European Union reached an agreement on the reopening of its borders on July 1 to 15 countries where the epidemic is in principle under control and comparable to the European average.

EU countries have given the green light to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, to the 3 Maghreb countries: Algeria (although for the moment, the borders remain closed), Morocco (opening around July 10) and Tunisia (open since June 27), to the 3 Balkan countries: Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, Uruguay and Rwanda as well as to China subject of reciprocity of opening the country to Europeans. This list of countries will be revised every 2 weeks according to the evolution of the epidemic.

The internal borders of the European Union being reopened, its 27 member countries have fixed an epidemiology rate similar to that of the Schengen area where the pandemic has ebbed and where the rate of new cases of Covid-19 must not exceed 16 per 100,000 population (EU average) over the past 14 days.

On the other hand, other countries remain blocked due to too many cases of coronavirus, worse than in Europe. This is the case of the United States, Russia, Brazil, Israel, Qatar, Turkey or India. However, a re-evaluation every 2 weeks is recommended by the Commission in order to adapt to the state of contamination in these countries. For the moment, 47 countries remain closed.

Since June 15, travelers can travel in France and Europe, however there are countries with which “reciprocity” is applied. Nationals of the European Union as well as Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, Switzerland and the Vatican can therefore enter French territory without restrictions.

The health conditions and instructions (temperature measurement, preventive test, wearing of the mask in public places, compulsory fortnight …) are different depending on the country; however, they are applicable for rental, camping, summer camps, stations or airports and public transport (metro, bus, tram, coach and boats) where the number of travelers must be reduced due to health regulations .

On July 3, the United Kingdom has just relaxed its quarantine regime, travelers from Germany, France, Spain and Italy will no longer be from July 10, but only for England. Forties will remain mandatory for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland under penalty of a fine. Likewise, Spain does not reopen its borders to Algeria, Morocco and China until reciprocity is applied

Hungary also announced on Thursday July 2 that it will not open its borders to these countries, while Slovenia continues to impose restrictions. Romania only accepts its own nationals and travel to Cyprus is not possible until further notice.

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VERONIQUE YANG

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