EU Could Ease Restrictions on Nonessential Visitors
Voice of America
The European Union announced Wednesday it would recommend its member countries allow fully vaccinated visitors from outside the bloc.
European Commission spokesman Christian Wigand told reporters in Brussels that ambassadors of the EU's 27 member states agreed to ease the criteria for nations to be considered a safe country from which all people can travel. Currently, only seven nations are considered safe, based on their COVID-19 infection rates. The EU imposed strict measures last year to contain outbreaks, but the bloc's ambassadors say many of the restrictions on nonessential travel should be eased as more people around the world are vaccinated and the summer tourism season approaches.
Firefighters extinguish a burning UNIFIL vehicle, set ablaze by protesters, on the road leading to Beirut's international airport on Feb. 14, 2025.
FILE - A USAID flag flutters outside as the USAID building sits closed to employees after a memo was issued freezing funding, in Washington, Feb. 3, 2025.
FILE - Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown speaks during a plenary session at the COP29 UN Climate Summit, Nov. 13, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan.
A view of a selection of the mummified bodies in the exhibition area of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. (Emma Paolin via AP) Emma Paolin, a researcher at University of Ljubljana, background, and Dr. Cecilia Bembibre, lecturer at University College London, take swab samples for microbiological analysis at the Krakow University of Economics. (Abdelrazek Elnaggar via AP)
FILE - Myanmar's military commander in chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, attends a military exercise at Ayeyarwady delta region in Myanmar, Feb. 3, 2018. FILE - Aung San Suu Kyi, then Myanmar's leader, delivers a speech in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Jan. 28, 2020.
FILE - Kurdish-led fighters backed by the U.S. escort suspected Islamic State militants in Hasakah, Syria, Jan. 26, 2022.
FILE - A picture taken on September 14, 2017 shows an Airbus A340 of Mahan Air at the tarmac at Dubai's International Airport. FILE - A plane of Lebanon's national carrier, Middle East Airlines (MEA), prepares to take off from Beirut International airport on Aug. 5, 2024.
FILE - Philippine Navy personnel watch the Canadian vessel HMCS Montreal during the Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity being held in the West Philippine Sea, Aug. 7, 2024.
Balochistan province, Pakistan
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te holds a press conference in Taipei, Taiwan, Feb. 14, 2025. FILE - The logo of TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) is shown during the Taiwan Innotech Expo at the World Trade Center in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 14, 2022.
Police officers stand next to a car outside the Gemelli hospital where Pope Francis has gone to continue treatment for ongoing bronchitis in Rome, Feb. 14, 2025.
Relatives and supporters of Israelis held hostage in the Gaza Strip hold photos depicting their faces during a protest demanding their release from Hamas captivity, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025.
FILE - The New Safe Confinement at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant which cover the No. 4 reactor unit, seen May 29, 2022.