The European Union is finalising plans to allow tourists from the United States to travel to the 27-nation bloc this summer, officials said Monday.
More than a year after the EU restricted travel to the region to a bare minimum in a bid to contain the pandemic, the European Commission said it would make a recommendation to member states to allow American travellers back.
The commission didn't say when exactly tourists will be allowed back inside the bloc, and if a reciprocal approach will apply to European tourists willing to travel to the US.
European Commission spokesman Adalbert Jahnz told reporters that the EU's executive body is hoping to restore nonessential "trans-Atlantic travel as soon as it is safe to do so."
It wasn't immediately clear if only full vaccination would be accepted for entry, or whether a negative PCR test or proof of recent recovery from COVID-19 could be presented as well.
"These are among the questions we'll still need to figure out," Jahnz said. "The proposal is not yet made. For now, we have nothing more to go by than what the (European Commission) president said."
On Sunday, The New York Times published an interview with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, reporting that fully vaccinated Americans would be able to visit EU countries this summer since all coronavirus vaccines currently used in the US have also been approved by the EU's drug regulator.