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EU Travel after Jan 1st and COVID and Brexit


slowdriver

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This will be relevant to those of us who are hoping to get away to Europe some time in early 2021.

The FT is reporting that the EU is to bar most Britons from visiting under Covid safety rules. Non-essential travel from UK will not be allowed after Brexit transition ends.

 

"The end of the Brexit transition period means that the UK will be subject to a system that only allows non-essential travel from a handful of non-EU countries with low coronavirus infection rates, the European Commission said"

 

The current arrangements on COVID travel from Third Party nations, of which we have been one for the last year, is essentially that no one is allowed to travel to the EU unless they are coming from a short list of excepted countries. Getting on that list requires a low level of COVID infections. Worldwide only eight countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, are on it, based on their low levels of Coronavirus infection.

 

Whether the individual countries of the EU implement this permitted travel list as it stands, or allow exceptions is up to them. But only 12 of the European nations apply the list in full, while three — Hungary, Croatia and Norway — have not adopted it at all, i.e. even New Zealanders are unable to travel to Hungary.

 

These health measures are of course in one sense unrelated to Brexit in that they apply to the whole world (excepting those on the list) of which we are now a part. However they do not apply to EU nations, and to that extent it is about Brexit, because if we had not Brexited, we would have the general exception granted to all EU countries.

 

This applies whether or not there is a trade deal since it is a function of the EU recommended preventative health measures, unrelated to Brexit and it's associated, possible , or not, trade deal.

 

So I conclude that for me, my previous plans have not changed too much. I was planning to go to Europe once I had received a jab - which will probably be May (ish), assuming the 8m people in front of me in the queue don't dilly dally. Hopefully, by then, a combination of Spring weather, and inoculation across Europe may have resulted in either the lifting of these restrictions in general, or the expansion of the list to include the UK.

 

 

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Your post makes sense, although I think there are many who feel that tourist based economies such as France, Spain and Portugal cannot do without the British. If there is no deal then I expect that some countries (France in particular) will try to make life difficult for the UK. Exclusion by Covid in a third party country is entirely logical. There could be a lot of anguish by Uk travellers this year coming.

 

I fully expect that some form of proof of vaccination will be required by some countries, at least for 2021 until we see how the rollout pans out. I would not be surprised to find the EU adopt this strategy.

 

Davy

 

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TeamRienza - 2020-12-10 3:36 AM

 

Your post makes sense, although I think there are many who feel that tourist based economies such as France, Spain and Portugal cannot do without the British. If there is no deal then I expect that some countries (France in particular) will try to make life difficult for the UK. Exclusion by Covid in a third party country is entirely logical. There could be a lot of anguish by Uk travellers this year coming.

 

Davy

 

This will hammer the ferry companies, Eurotunnel and airlines. Brittany have taken delivery of the first of two new ferries and must view this news with horror.

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This will hammer the ferry companies, Eurotunnel and airlines. Brittany have taken delivery of the first of two new ferries and must view this news with horror.

It's only for a few months and they will have (or certainly should have) budgeted for that on the basis of COVID I would expect.

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If I look at the experience from my country and apply it to UK/EU you will possibly be shut out of individual countries. It will be Covid that causes that, Brexit will simply be the trigger date.When the virus was on the move here each state decided on who could cross the respective border and who could not based on home postcode. I suspect the EU member countries would do the same. Both AU & NZ have dramatically slowed the virus down by closing the international borders. In the last month or so the only outbreaks have emanated from the quarantine hotels where staff have been infected by returning AU citizens. While border closure was not the only fix for number reduction it did have a significant influence on the infection rate. If I was a UK resident I would not consider a move away from the UK until at least a year. We have spent time travelling around our own state for the last 6 months with only a recent trip across the state border to see family when the infection rate has eased. The UK is not a bad place after all we pay thousands of dollars to visit so it can not be too bad for your holidays. cheers,
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