American Tourists Get Green Light To Visit Spain This Summer
Spain News
Published: 26 April 2021 18:20 CET
American tourists have been given the green light by the EU to visit Spain and other European countries this summer.
EU president, Ursula von der Leyen said during an interview with The New York Times on Sunday, that any American’s who had been vaccinated against COVID-19, would be able to travel to the EU this summer.
She said: “The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines. This will enable free movement and the travel to the European Union.”
“Because one thing is clear: the 27 member states will accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines approved by the EMA.”
Along with the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab, the EMA has also approved the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines which are currently being administered throughout Europe.
More recently, after a number of scares, the Janssen vaccine was added to the list which has been produced by U.S pharmaceutical giant, Johnson & Johnson.
It is the last three that the United States is currently using via its own vaccination programme.
Although there is no clear timeline available as to when U.S citizens will be able to travel to Spain, her comments do suggest that the restrictions currently in place for American tourists could soon be lifted in time for the peak summer months.
However, she clarified that any resumption in travel would be dependent "on the epidemiological situation" in the United States which she noted was improving all the time.
Ms von der Leyen said that the United States was "on track" and making "huge progress” with its vaccination campaign with the aim to reach herd immunity or the vaccination of 70 per cent of the adult population by mid-June.
Diplomats from Europe’s top tourist destinations have spent weeks pushing for more reliable ways of determining whether a country can be considered a "safe" origin with the current method based on a low number of COVID-19 cases.
This is now thought to be irrelevant, given the progress that has been made on the vaccination front in the U.S, UK and other countries.
The hope is that vaccination certificates issued by foreign governments will be freely accepted within the EU and vice versa which would be a major boost to the travel sectors worldwide.
Source
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/world/europe/american-travel-to-europe.html
https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/4672982/0/los-turistas-de-ee-uu-vacunados-podran-visitar-la-ue-este-verano/
Image Credit: European Parliament
