British holidaymakers to be given green light by EU to use vaccine passports to enter Europe

A man looks at a check-in information board at Heathrow Airport in London
REUTERS
Leah Sinclair18 May 2021

British travellers are to be given the green light by the EU to use vaccine passports to enter Europe.

EU ambassadors will meet on Wednesday and are expected to sign off on a plan that will allow those who are fully vaccinated to fly to Europe from the UK without having to have a Covid test or quarantine, the Telegraph reports.

The UK is also expected to be included on an extended EU “green list”, which will permit holiday travel from non-EU countries with Covid infection rates below 100 cases per 100,000 of the population, rather than the current 25 per 100,000.

If the ambassadors reach an agreement, the decision will be formally adopted at the EU trade ministers council on Thursday, the paper states.

Currently, all European countries except green-listed Portugal and Gibraltar are rated "amber" by the UK Government, requiring travellers to quarantine and take two PCR tests on their return.

It comes as the bosses of British Airways and Heathrow issued a joint appeal to the Government requesting an advance ‘green list’ of countries people can travel to so families can plan holidays.

Heathrow chief excutive John Holland-Kaye said: “We are calling on the Government to help people to plan ahead by publishing a list of countries expected to be on the ‘green list’ for the summer so that passengers are not faced with high prices and limited choices for last-minute bookings," said Mr Holland-Kaye.

"That’s happened to many people travelling to Portugal today. Let’s give hard-working Brits the chance to get their towels on the sun lounger."

BA chairman Sean Doyle said the resumption of overseas leisure travel was “an important milestone”, particularly for people who have been “separated from their families and loved ones for over a year”.

He added that the Government must “start progressively assigning green status to many more lower-risk countries as their vaccination rates increase”.

The Government has pledged to update its lists on June 7 and will review its overall policy in relation to arriving travellers on June 28.

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