EU will allow UK tourists with vaccine as Johnson says no holidays to Spain or France
Fully vaccinated Brits in need of a holiday are one step closer to a summer vacation in the EU today, even as Prime Minister Boris Johnson was again forced to deter those travelling to amber list destinations such as Spain and France.
In the Commons yesterday Johnson insisted the position was “very clear” and UK residents should only travel to an amber list country such as Spain, Greece, France or the US “for some extreme circumstance, such as the serious illness of a family member”.
“You should not be going to an amber list country on holiday,” the Johnson told MPs.
It came after Opposition leader Keir Starmer pushed the PM to drop the “hopeless” traffic light system as “absolute clarity” is needed over whether or not people should travel to amber list countries before he highlighted mixed messages given by ministers.
Yesterday EU ambassadors agreed to easing restrictions on non-essential trips into the EU from the UK.
Last summer UK holidaymakers could still use freedom of movement under the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement to get into the EU with less fuss.
Now Brussels will likely let the UK onto the same list as countries like Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in a decision about the EU’s “safe list” on Friday.
Portugal and Greece have already begun welcoming UK tourist, but an EU-wide move would boost the chances of a proper travel industry revival .
It will be up to individual EU countries what forms of proof of vaccination they require to let tourists in, but the move could do away with at least some of the Covid-19 PCR and rapid test requirements for arrivals.
The most popular destination for UK holidaymakers, Spain, currently prohibits inbound leisure visits from outside the EU and Schengen Area, meaning UK holidaymakers are banned.
However British tourists are a lucrative market segment for many EU states. In 2019 Brits made more than 19m visits to Spain, more than 10m to France and over 5m travelled to Italy.
This morning transport secretary Grant Shapps indicated that he wants to expand the green list of countries where travel for holidays is allowed without self-isolation on return.
Ministers appeared to contradict themselves over whether visiting amber list countries, while no longer illegal, should be done for holiday reasons, reuniting with family and friends, or neither.
It comes after the bosses of British Airways, Heathrow and Gatwick airports piled pressure on the Government to increase the number of destinations on the green list, where arrivals are not forced to self-isolate for 10 days.
BA boss Sean Doyle said this week:“The US has vaccinated 59 per cent of all adults, and infections are falling, so we’d be very optimistic about the United States.
“And if we look at places like Germany and you look at France, again they’re making great progress, as is Europe.
“So we think Europe and the US certainly should be in scope for inclusion in the green list as we see the trends on vaccination and prevalence.”
The chairman of the Commons Transport Committee this afternoon said the Government guidance on foreign travel remains “completely unclear”.
Tory MP Huw Merriman told the BBC: “I thought if you were coming from a country that was on the amber list then there would be tests, passenger locator forms and quarantine at home. But now we are being told that you shouldn’t be going there at all.
“It seems very bizarre that just a week or so ago the Government announced that they were going to lift the stay in the UK guidance, they set out which countries apply to which traffic lights so individuals would know what they had to go through and then make their decision and yet now people are told they shouldn’t be travelling.
“I think that that is just wrong, not least because many, many people have made their bookings based on what they thought the restrictions should be and are now being told they shouldn’t go at all.”