The White House proclaims it is still working on a policy announced in June to permit fully vaccinated nationals to travel to the US, free of quarantine restrictions. However, the European countries’ representatives are growing impatient and have spoken out against the travel restrictions.
On the other hand, the Press Secretary for the White House, Jen Psaki, has announced that restrictions for the EU travellers remain unchanged until further notice – a decision highly affecting the transatlantic relations between two continents, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“We certainly understand that and relate to that, and know that people are eager to be reunited with loved ones -and that is something that’s impacting many people around the world,” Psaki said for CNN.
The US imposed travel ban was first introduced in March 2020 by the former president, Donald Trump, as a protective measure from the Coronavirus outbreak. Furthermore, his successor, President Joe Biden, extended the travel ban for the European countries, valid for over 530 days now, despite the EU’s vaccination rates being among the highest in the world.
Furthermore, the European representatives have spoken out addressing the issue in several events, claiming that this travel ban is damaging US-EU relations.
“The travel ban seriously harms vital economic and human ties, at a time when they’re most needed,” Stavros Lambrinidis, the EU ambassador to the US, wrote and his counterpart in Washington, the French ambassador, Philippe Etienne, also agreed.
Previously, the International Air and Transport Association (IATA) urged the government to at least abolish testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers in a bid to allow them to travel more freely amid the pandemic and exclude them from the additional expenses.
“Banning fully vaccinated Europeans from entering America is damaging to EU-US relations in so many ways,” the Irish ambassador to the US, Daniel Mulhall, also stated.
Moreover, during the US elections, Biden had proclaimed he would restore the alliance with the European countries, and in June, the White House said that a group of experts was working to finalize the agreement for lifting restrictions for travellers coming from the European member states, Canada, the UK, and Mexico.
In a meeting with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, Biden announced that the US would soon end the travel ban, but nothing happened even after almost two months.
“It’s in the process of (considering) how soon we can lift the ban … and I will be able to answer that question to you within the next several days,” Biden stated.
On the other hand, the EU has introduced a travel ban on US travellers earlier this week, reporting a surge in Coronavirus infection rates. The union also removed Israel, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Lebanon from the EU’s epidemiologically safe countries.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) data, 744 people have died in the US due to Coronavirus implication, and 120,560 positive cases have been reported in the past 24 hours. In total, COVID-19 caused 634,320 deaths and 38,923,013 positive cases since January 2020.
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September 02, 2021 at 09:39PM
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