EU travelrestrictions lifted for this list of countries but was that a wise recommendation by the European Commission?

The EC recommended that the travel restrictions for non-essential travel should be lifted for travellers from the following countries. Check with the local embassy (VFS) if you can apply for a visa (if you need one) or when they will start processing applications again.

· Algeria
· Australia
· Canada
· Georgia
· Japan
· Montenegro
· Morocco
· New Zealand
· Rwanda
· Serbia
· South Korea
· Thailand
· Tunisia
· Uruguay
(China, subject to confirmation of reciprocity)

Residence in a third country for which the restrictions on non-essential travel have been lifted should be the determining factor (not nationality). This list will be reviewed each 2 weeks using the European Commission’s checklist that was published on 11/06/2020.

As regards the epidemiological situation, third countries should meet the following criteria, subject to regular review:

+ close to or below 16 new COVID-19 cases over the last 14 days and per 100,000 inhabitants, + the trend of new cases over the same period in comparison to the previous 14 days is stable or decreasing, + the overall response to COVID-19 taking into account available information on aspects such as testing, surveillance, contact tracing, containment, treatment and reporting.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

I do understand that airlines are lobbying to be able to fly loads of tourists around again but was this a smart move? This whole COVID pandemic was in my opinion caused by continued intercontinental travel while red flags were going up everywhere (No pun intended at the Chinese flag).

I am an immigration lawyer who earns her living from international travel but I am also a child with elderly parents and a former cancer patient with a lung with scars. Like many others the last three months I spent locked up in my house.

For a business meeting Zoom, Skype, Webex are all alternatives that might be a lot less fun than being able to fly business-class, sleep in an expensive hotel and dine out all on the boss's because you had to attend a meeting but apart from the huge carbon print is it really necessary? Could we refrain from doing that till 2021?

And for tourism? I read in the newspaper that only 6% of all people are planning to go abroad for a holiday. That bungalow parks and campings are fully booked. So do we need those non EU tourists to survive economically? 

Even essential travels can pose a risk as New Zealand saw when they admitted a British family who wanted to say goodbye to a dying relative but turned out to have COVID.

The phrase that we should trust our fellow people that they will not travel when feeling ill is in my opinion not realistic. When someone has booked a holiday of 600 euros and no annulment insurance do you really think that person will think "Oh I have a bit of a sore throat I better not board that plane and flush 600 euro down the drain"?

And then we are not even taking the non-symptomatic patients into account.