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On January 1 the UK becomes a non-European Union country officially, and its citizens become third-country citizens to the EU.
With the ongoing pandemic and the number of cases on the rise, the EU Commission has issued a recommendation to the EU Member States advising them to ban non-essential entry from the UK due to the new virus strain detected in England.
In the Recommendation, the Commission also brings forward the issue of travel from the UK after December 31, pointing out that as of January 1, in principle only essential travel may take place from the United Kingdom.
“As of January 1, 2021, the United Kingdom will become a third country and the Member States shall start applying the Recommendation on the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU to persons travelling from the UK, in view of the end of the transition period,” the Commission notes in a press release presenting the Recommendation.
At the same time, the Commission notes, that in order for the UK to benefit from an exemption from this general travel restriction, the Council needs to add the former EU member to the list of third countries the residents of whom should not be affected by temporary external borders restriction on non-essential travel to the EU.
“This limitation to essential travel shall not apply to Union citizens resident in the UK and UK nationals who are long-term residents in the EU Member States under the Long-term Residence Directive, independent of the purpose of travel,” the Commission notes.
The Recommendation has been published on December 22, in the light of the spread of a new COVID variation in the UK, which is asserted to be 70 per cent more transmissible.
The EU Council’s list of epidemiologically safe third-countries is a list of non-EU/EEA countries which are considered safe amid the Coronavirus pandemic, due to the low rates of infections.
The list was first published on June 30, and it included 15 third-countries. Since then, it has been reviewed six times, and each time the Council has removed countries from the list, due to the deterioration of the virus situation in their territory.
Currently, only the following are part of the list:
The criteria to determine the third countries for which the current travel restriction should be abolished include, in particular, the epidemiological situation and the measures taken to prevent the spread, including physical distancing, as well as economic and social considerations.
However, the UK remains one of the most affected countries in the world by the pandemic, with 2,149,551 cases marked so far, 69,051 of which have resulted in death.
With the new virus variation quickly spreading throughout the whole UK, chances are almost non-existent that the EU could possibly include the UK in its list of safe countries.