The European Union is considering reimposing its ban on US visitors from next week, according to sources close to the EU Council of Ministers.
Speaking to Bloomberg, a source said “the US has breached the threshold to be included among non-EU countries that enjoy unrestricted travel into the bloc.”
The European Council lists a number of factors to determine whether or not a non-EU country can have unrestricted access to the bloc; as of yesterday (9 August) there were more than 20 countries on the list, including the U.S.
One of these factors is that a country must have no more than 75 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants over the previous 14 days; data from the WHO revealed that the U.S. recorded 635,150 new cases on one day alone last week.
A Political Fight
Should the EU reintroduce the entry ban on U.S. visitors, it is unclear what effect it would have on the U.S.’s cautious approach toward reopening its own borders to visitors from the EU.
The EU has widely criticised the U.S. ban on EU visitors; last week, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen demanded that the U.S. put an end to the ban.
The Biden Administration has responded by floating the possibility of allowing access to the U.S. for visitors who have been fully vaccinated.
