Sri Lanka has not been included in the draft list of 54 countries that will benefit from the reopening of the European Union external borders, which is expected to happen by the beginning of July. According to sources of Euronews, EU officials failed to agree on a common list of the countries that would definitely be banned from entering the block upon the border reopening but managed to create a list of the countries with a better epidemiological situation, the citizens of which will be able to enter Europe by the end of next week. The same sources have also confirmed that citizens of Brazil, Qatar, the US and Russia will only be able to enter Europe at a later date when the epidemiological situation in these countries improves. Nationals of the following countries are listed in this draft list:

1. Albania
2. Algeria
3. Andorra
4. Angola
5. Australia
6. Bahamas
7. Bhutan
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina
9. Canada
10. China
11. Costa Rica
12. Cuba
13. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
14. Dominica
15. Egypt
16. Ethiopia
17. Georgia
18. Guyana
19. India
20. Indonesia
21. Jamaica
22. Japan
23. Kazakhstan
24. Kosovo
25. Lebanon
26. Mauritius
27. Monaco
28. Mongolia
29. Montenegro
30. Morocco
31. Mozambique
32. Myanmar
33. Namibia
34. New Zealand
35. Nicaragua
36. Palau
37. Paraguay
38. Rwanda
39. Saint Lucia
40. Serbia
41. South Korea
42. Tajikistan
43. Thailand
44. Tunisia
45. Turkey
46. Turkmenistan
47. Uganda
48. Ukraine
49. Uruguay
50. Uzbekistan
51. Vatican City
52. Venezuela
53. Vietnam
54. Zambia

“The European Union has an internal process to determine from which countries it would be safe to accept travellers,” EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said last Thursday, adding that its decisions are “based on health criteria.” 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 pre-pandemic. At the same time, the Commission recommended that the Member States should start allowing third-country nationals to enter the EU starting from July 1, gradually and partially, based on the epidemiological situation in each third-country. The Commission recommended the following objective criteria for the Member States, when drafting the list of countries, the citizens of which may visit the EU after July 1:

• epidemiological situation and coronavirus response in that country,
• the ability to apply containment measures during travel, an
• whether or not that country has lifted travel restrictions towards the EU.

Based on these conditions, the Commission recommended that the nationals of the six Western Balkan countries should be the first to benefit from the abolishment of travel restrictions, all of which are in the above list.