European Union member states agreed on Wednesday to add the United States to the list of countries where non-essential travel restrictions should be lifted. This move was adopted during the meeting of the Permanent Representatives of the Group of 27 in Brussels.
The recommendation is non-binding, and the governments of individual EU countries continue to have the right to require test results or vaccination records and set other entry conditions.
The EU does not have a unified pandemic tourism or border policy, but for months it has been developing a universal digital travel certificate for people who have been vaccinated, tested negative for the coronavirus, or recently recovered from the virus. EU lawmakers approved the plan last week.
The free certificate will contain a QR code with advanced security features, allowing people to move between EU countries without quarantining or undergoing additional coronavirus tests on arrival.
Several countries in the European Union have begun to use the system, including Belgium, Spain, Germany, Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark and Poland. The rest is expected to start using on July 1.