After marathon discussions, it appears that Israel will join the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia on the list of nations whose citizens will be barred from traveling to Europe when the borders begin to open in July, according to a French newspaper.
The Committee of Permanent Representatives in the European Union met for some days to draw up a list of approved nations, which will include Australia, Canada, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, Thailand, Uruguay, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Montenegro, Serbia and Georgia, according to Le Monde.
The move appears controversial as some members of the 27-nation union want the process sped up and expanded.
Countries highly dependent on tourism, like Portugal and Greece, “want to reopen ASAP for as many as possible,” an E.U. diplomat told AFP. “The others are reticent to move fast to save eight weeks of [the] tourism season, however important it may be.”
Israel is seeing what some consider to be a second wave of COVID-19 infections, with the number of new daily infections running in the high hundreds over the past week, although the numbers of new serious cases and deaths remain low.
