The European Council has removed Armenia and five other countries from the so-called “safe countries” list.

Following a review under the recommendation on the gradual lifting of the temporary restrictions on non-essential travel into the EU, the Council updated the list of countries, special administrative regions and other entities and territorial authorities for which travel restrictions should be lifted. In particular, Uruguay was added to the list and Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brunei Darussalam, Japan and Serbia were removed from the list, the statement posted on the website of the European Council reads.

Non-essential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed in Annex I is subject to temporary travel restriction. This is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travelers.

As stipulated in the Council recommendation, this list will continue to be reviewed every two weeks and, as the case may be, updated.