The Council of the European Union has not yet approved the final list of the countries to be permitted to visit Europe when the borders reopen from July 1, the European Commission spokesperson Adalbert Jahnz told a briefing.

According to him, the discussion is still ongoing, but so far they have nothing more to add.

If the list cannot be agreed, the EU Council will have to decide what to do next, he noted.

Draft list

According to a TASS diplomatic source in Brussels, the number of countries on this list has reached 15.

The latest list that may be adopted includes Canada, Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Rwanda, Serbia, Montenegro, Georgia, and Uruguay.

The sides cannot agree on whether to remove China or not.

According to the source, some states are afraid that the borders reopening with China, and the refusal to reopen the borders with the US may lead to increased tensions between Brussels and Washington.

Reopening criteria

Adalbert Jahnz noted three sets of criteria have been developed that are being taken into account in order to include the countries in the list. 

The first set of criteria is based on the general epidemiological situation in each country, the second comes to the ability of each country to apply measures to contain the pandemic during trips, the third set is about the availability of bilateral agreements between the EU and these countries on mutual anti-epidemiological measures, which should be mirror-based.