Belgium will reopen its borders on July 7 after safety preparations, the country’s foreign minister said Wednesday.
EU ALLOWS NATIONALS FROM 14 COUNTRIES
On Tuesday, the European Union decided to allow nationals from 14 countries to enter the bloc’s territory as of July 1. However, Philippe Goffin said Belgium will not open its borders to travelers from the whitelisted countries before July 7.
Goffin said the preparations would take another week and that experts from the government are now working on how Belgium’s borders can be rationally reopened and how Belgians in turn can travel.
The EU will revise the list every two weeks based on epidemiological criteria, including the countries’ overall response to coronavirus and declining infection rates which reflect similar or lower cases per 100,000 inhabitants compared to the EU average.
The gradual lifting requires coordination between 30 countries, including four EU countries that have yet to join the Schengen Area – namely Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Southern Cyprus – and four non-EU members of the borderless zone: Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Iceland.