EU agrees to ease travel restrictions on non-EU visitors for summer season

European Union countries agreed on Wednesday to ease Covid-19 travel restrictions on non-EU visitors ahead of the summer tourist season, two EU sources said according to Reuters.

The sources reportedly said that ambassadors from the 27 EU countries approved a European Commission proposal from 3 May to loosen the criteria to determine "safe" countries and to let in fully vaccinated tourists from elsewhere in the bloc.

Brussels will release a new list of countries this week or early the next.

Under current restrictions, people from only seven countries, including Australia, Israel and Singapore, can enter the EU for holidays, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated.

For inoculated people to gain access, they would need to have received an EU-approved vaccine, although those with a vaccine that is on the World Health Organization emergency listing will be considered for entry.