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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Rosaleen Fenton

EU set to lift external border restrictions from July 1

The EU has announced plans to begin a "gradual and partial" lifting of its external borders on 1 July.

At the moment, only EU citizens can enter and there has been no detail yet on who else could enter in July.

The European Commission shut its external borders in mid-March to stop the spread of the virus.

All non-essential travel within the EU's passport-free Schengen area was also outlawed.

Border restrictions across Europe are set to be relaxed (PA)

The Schengen agreement allows people to move freely between EU countries without border checks.

And several countries closed their borders to protect their citizens from COVID-19 infection.  

Brits were not affected by the EU's external border closures as British citizens are still also citizens of Europe.

But now Europe is expected to ease travel restrictions and fully open its Schengen borders, the Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson has said.

In a news conference last Friday, the New Europe reports she said: “So that means that internal border controls are lifted by the end of June, I guess.

"We should consider the gradual lifting of restrictions on non-essential travel to the EU early July."

Belgium’s Interior Minister Pieter de Crem said on Friday that an agreement has been reached with most countries to reopen many internal borders - although some countries such as Spain are set to do this later.

He tweeted: "An agreement has been reached with most of the #Schengen countries to reopen the internal borders as of June 15.

"However, there are exceptions, such as Spain that will reopen its borders on the first of July'."

Now the European Commission is set to release full guidelines for the reopening of external borders.

The measures are set to be coordinated with the European Centre for Disease Prevention (ECDC), which will consider factors such as the rate of infection in each country.

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