The EU has officially removed Serbia from the list of safe countries
The Council of the European Union has officially published a new list of countries for which there is a recommendation to lift the restrictions on travels to the EU as of July 16th. There are 13 countries on this list that were on the previous one, while Serbia and Montenegro are the only countries removed from the list. Brussels states that the list will be updated once again, in two weeks. Based on criteria encompassing primarily the epidemiological situation and protection measures, the member states of EU-27 should gradually abolish travel restrictions at the external borders for residents of Algeria, Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, Uruguay and China as of July 16th, the last one being also conditioned by reciprocity for trips of the EU citizens to its territory. These are the countries that were on the first list of the EU Council, which was applied from July 1st, with the exception of Serbia and Montenegro that were removed due to the deterioration of the epidemiological situation. The EU Council states that third countries, whose citizens are allowed to travel to the EU, must have a number of new cases of COVID-19 „near or below the EU average“ per 100,000 inhabitants during the last 14 days, to have a stable or declining trend of new cases in the past 14 days, taking into account the overall third country’s response to COVID-19, including aspects such as testing, supervision, contact monitoring, retention, treatment and reporting, as well as reliability of the information. In Brussels, they emphasize that the recommendation of the EU Council is not a legally binding instrument and that authorities of member states remain responsible for implementation of the recommendation content. Member States may or may not lift travel restrictions for above mentioned countries, and should not decide to lift travel restrictions for third countries that are not on the list before a joint, coordinated decision of the EU.
Izvor: RTS, Tanjug
Foto: MGSI
