By Brits could face ban on EU holidays from January 1 under Covid rules
UK holidaymakers could be barred from entering the EU from next month due to Covid rules, it has been reported.
Non-essential visits to the EU by UK citizens will be hit by curbs, according to the Financial Times.
Most UK residents will face restrictions on visiting the remaining 27 members of the EU at the end of the transition period when rules permitting free travel within the bloc cease to apply to Britons, the newspaper said.
This means entry into the EU would then be based on essential travel only and currently only countries with low coronavirus infection rates qualify for non-essential travel.
EU member states agreed in October to adopt a European council proposal to allow nonessential travel from a small group of countries with lower levels of Covid cases including Australia, New Zealand and South Korea.
An EU commission spokesman last week said there were no plans to extend that to the UK.
With talks about a trade deal between the UK and the EU still continuing, there is a possibility this could change.
Alternatively, individual member state countries could decide to override the EU rules and create a corridor with the UK.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab today acknowledged that travel could be disrupted across Europe.
“Covid restrictions will depend on the combination of what the EU decides, but also member states,” he said.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We cannot comment on decisions that could be taken by other states on public health matters.
“We take a scientific, risk-based approach to health measures at the border, and it is of course in the interests of all countries to allow safe international travel as we emerge from the pandemic.”
A spokesperson for the airline Easyjet told the BBC: “There is no EU blanket law which requires individual states to limit entry from those arriving from outside the EU and so just as they do today, we expect individual European countries to continue to apply their own rules.”
Photo: Ethan Robertson
