Whether you enjoy beautiful coasts like Greece’s Caldera, Italy’s Amalfi, Spain’s Ibiza and Majorca, or cultural and classic destinations such as Louvre Museum in France and Brandenburg Gate in Germany, Europe is a diverse destination that one must visit.
Just like other parts of the world, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the European countries hard and forced them to close all of their external borders in order to protect public health by halting the further spread of the Coronavirus within the countries, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
On March 17, 2020, the European Commission’s President Ursula von der Leyen, together with the President of EU Council Charles Michael, announced that the EU bodies had decided to close the EU’s external borders for non-essential travel to the EU for 30 days, but this lasted until June 30, 2020.
However, as the epidemiological situation inside and outside European countries started to improve, Member States decided to abolish such measures and gradually began to lift the restrictions for EU travellers and several third countries that have been registering low infection rates.
Such lifting of restrictions was further supported by the introduction of the EU Digital COVID-19 Passport, which started being effective on July 1, after the EU Commission considered it to be an efficient way of monitoring the movement of travellers within the EU and Schengen Area countries.
EU Nationals Travelling Throughout the Block
Except for the restrictions imposed against arrivals from outside the 27-nation block, the new strains of the virus pushed several EU/Schengen Area countries to close their internal borders and enforce strict restrictions for any arrivals from a Coronavirus high-risk country.
Denmark, Finland, Germany, Portugal, and Spain were just some of the Schengen Area countries that reintroduced internal border checks back in February.
However, since the pandemic situation started to improve, EU citizens were permitted to travel…