European Union countries agreed on Friday to an easing of travel restrictions over summer that will allow fully vaccinated tourists to avoid tests or quarantines and broaden the list of EU regions from which it is safe to travel.
Ambassadors from the 27 EU member states approved a modified European Commission proposal that people who have been fully vaccinated for 14 days should be able to travel freely from one EU country to another, current EU president Portugal said.
Restrictions for other travellers should be based on the degree to which the country they are coming from has Covid-19 infections under control.
Just over a quarter of EU adults are now fully vaccinated.
The revised guidelines come as the EU introduces Covid-19 certificates that will indicate whether a person is vaccinated, has immunity because they were previously infected, or has had a recent negative test. The system is set to be ready by July 1, although some countries will launch certificates earlier.
As the pace of vaccinations accelerates, the bloc will loosen the traffic light colour coding to represent the relative safety of various EU regions.
