By Chidinma Ufomadu
The European Union has released a list of 54 countries as the only countries qualified to gain entrance into the European borders in a bid to reopen their external borders for international travels on July 1, 2020, and Nigeria has been exempted from the list.
According to news from Schengenvisainfo.com, some factors were considered for the countries chosen to benefit from the reopening of the external borders of the EU are the epidemiological situation and coronavirus response in that country; the ability to apply containment measures during travel; and if that country has lifted travel restrictions towards the EU.
Reports have it that officials of the EU could not come to a conclusion on the list of the countries that should not be allowed access into the European borders from the first week of July and therefore, used the epidemiological situation on countries to come to a conclusion.
On Thursday, 25 June 2020, the EU Commission spokesman, Eric Mamer, said, “The European Union has an internal process to determine from which countries it would be safe to accept travellers.”
He added that the arrangement is “based on health criteria.”
It was confirmed that citizens of Brazil, Qatar, the US and Russia will gain access into Europe when the epidemiological situation in these countries improves.
The countries from which travellers are permitted to enter Europe as from July 1, are Albania, Algeria, Andorra, Angola, Australia, Bahamas, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Dominica, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Guyana, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lebanon and Mauritius.
Other countries include Mongolia, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Serbia, South Korea, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.
This leaves Nigeria on the fence; not amongst the list of 54 countries qualified to gain access into European borders and not also listed amongst the countries not qualified to gain access into the European borders.
It can be recalled that on June 11, the Commission presented its recommendation on the reopening of internal Schengen borders on June 15, so that Europeans can travel within the borderless area, freely, just as they did before the pandemic.
Likewise, the Commission recommended that the member states should start allowing third-country nationals to enter the EU starting from July 1, based on the epidemiological situation in each third-country.
