EU reopens borders to Singapore visitors

[BRUSSELS] The European Union has opted to reopen its borders to travellers from Singapore as a result of improved virus trends in the country according to an EU official familiar with the matter.

The official said this on condition of anonymity because the deliberations on Wednesday in Brussels were confidential. The EU also decided to remove Canada, Tunisia and Georgia from its list of countries whose residents should be allowed to visit the bloc amid the coronavirus pandemic. The US will remain blacklisted along with most other countries.

The changes are the first in more than two months to the EU's recommended travel "white list," shrinking it from 11 foreign nations at present to nine. The other eight are Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand and Uruguay.

The update - endorsed by EU member-country envoys at a regular closed-door meeting - comes amid a resurgence in coronavirus cases in Europe itself and is due to be published in the bloc's Official Journal within days.

The EU on July 1 recommended that member states allow foreign visitors from 15 countries as part of a move to loosen coronavirus-triggered restrictions imposed in mid-March on non-essential travel to the bloc.

Since then, Serbia, Montenegro, Algeria and Morocco have been delisted as a result of resurgences in virus cases. The EU typically reviews its list roughly every two weeks, with the last change being the removal of Morocco in the first half of August.

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