EU ministers criticise nonsensical US ban on European travellers Blog
EU ministers hit out at ‘damaging’ US ban on Europeans.
Officials across Europe have called for the US travel ban restricting non-essential travel to the United States to be lifted.
The ban, which has been in place for more than 500 days, prevents travellers from entering the US if they have been in Ireland, the UK or the European Schengen area in the past two weeks.
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Currently, only citizens and lawful permanent residents of the US, certain family members, and other people who meet specified exceptions are allowed to enter the country.
With no concrete date indicated as to when this might be lifted, Ireland’s Ambassador to the US, Dan Mulhall, said the ongoing US ban is “damaging relations.”
In his tweet, Boyle pointed out that “many EU countries” have higher vaccination rates than the US, including the Republic of Ireland, where 89% percent of the total population is fully vaccinated.
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The US vaccination rate stands at only 54.9%.
Critics argue that the United States is locked down even more tightly than it was when the Trump administration first put travel restrictions in place at the start of the outbreak, despite many parts of the world re-opening to international visitors.
US officials have cited rising Delta variant cases as one reason for that decision.
In June, the European Council added the US to the list of Covid-19 safe countries, allowing American tourists to visit the continent.
This resulted in airline routes between Europe and the US rebounding to almost 50% of pre-pandemic levels.
The EU Commission Vice President, Margaritis Schinas, announced he had cancelled a trip to the US in protest of the Biden administration’s decision to not remove the ban for European travellers.
“I cancelled my planned trip to the USA next week because I do not find the lack of reciprocity on travel rules fair. Nor does it make sense — Europe is the most vaccinated continent in the world,” Commissioner Schinas wrote.
In a possible sign of tit for tat, the European Union is set to discuss whether to reintroduce travel restrictions on visitors from the US once again.
