EU ambassadors agreed to open the bloc's doors to immunised people and loosen the requirements for countries to be included on its travel "white list".
The list includes only a few non-member states, and all have extremely low Covid-19 infection rates.
But on Wednesday, ambassadors approved a proposal by the European Commission to make it easier for non-EU countries to join the list.
Under the plan, the maximum permitted 14-day infection rate per 100,000 people would be raised from 25 to 75.
The UK’s latest figure was 44, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). It was 176 in the US.
In drawing up the final list, EU policymakers could also consider variants of concern, the level of testing and whether the trend is stable or decreasing.
Germany last week returned the UK to its list of high-risk areas because of the spread of the B.1.617.2 Covid-19 variant first identified in India.
Visitors from countries not on the list will still be able to travel to Europe if they have been fully immunised with an EU-approved product.
The vaccines approved by the bloc’s regulators are those by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
The European Medicines Agency has yet to give a verdict on Russia's Sputnik V and China's Sinopharm vaccines, which are in use in Hungary.
Under plans for a digital health certificate, individual countries will be allowed to admit visitors immunised with vaccines not approved by the EU.
The bloc’s 27 EU governments will have the final word on whether to scrap testing or quarantine requirements.
EU poised to expand its ‘white list’
A new list of safe countries will be drawn up once the new criteria have been signed off by the European Council, which is expected to happen this week.
The current list has only seven destinations – Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand, plus China, if it agrees to reciprocate.
The ECDC will give advice on the updated country list, which The National understands could be published early next week.
Once countries are on the list, the EU recommends to its member states that they should make international travel easier for visitors from those nations.
The European Council “will now recommend that member states ease some of the current restrictions” for vaccinated people, said European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand.
“The council should also soon expand the list of non-EU countries with a good epidemiological situation from where travel is permitted,” he said.
Visitors from England are restricted by the UK government's traffic-light system for international travel.
Only a few countries are on the UK's green list, and the only major tourist destination is Portugal.
The Commission’s proposal envisages an emergency brake mechanism to protect the bloc from dangerous new variants of the virus.
Businesses in Europe are reopening, and bars, hotels and restaurants are worried about the summer tourist trade.
Much of the continent imposed restrictions in March and April to cope with a third wave of the virus, prolonging the misery for the battered tourist industry.
Tourism is an important part of the economies of southern European countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
European tourism chiefs said this month the industry may not fully recover from the pandemic until 2024.
Some member states, including Greece, already admit vaccinated tourists without requiring them to quarantine on arrival.
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The Case For Trump
By Victor Davis Hanson
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
- Cinematography, shots and movement.
- All aspects of post-production.
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Tottenham 0-1 Ajax, Tuesday
Second leg
Ajax v Tottenham, Wednesday, May 8, 11pm
Game is on BeIN Sports
The specs
Price, base / as tested Dh100,000 (estimate)
Engine 2.4L four-cylinder
Gearbox Nine-speed automatic
Power 184bhp at 6,400rpm
Torque 237Nm at 3,900rpm
Fuel economy, combined 9.4L/100km
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
Power: 134bhp
Torque: 175Nm
Price: From Dh98,800
Available: Now
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Ferrari
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Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sep 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
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The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5