Although the trend might seem to be that COVID-19 restrictions are starting to fall away in Europe, the majority of EU states still have travel restrictions in place.
Iceland, Norway, Slovenia, Romania, Hungary and Ireland and the UK have dropped their COVID-19 restrictions, meaning travellers can now enter without having to observe any COVID-19-related measures.
In those countries holding on to restrictions, the rules may now be more relaxed than those of a year ago, but several still use a colour-coded system and differentiate between travellers originating from the EU or the Schengen Area, and a traveller from a non-EU country, according to schengenvisainfo.com.
The list of countries that still require travellers to present a vaccination, recovery or test certificate on entry includes Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden, along with Schengen-affiliated Switzerland.
Germany, Portugal and Poland apply rules to non-EU travellers that are different from the rules applied to EU travellers.
Each Member State has the right to impose its own rules on the validity of the vaccination passes, but the majority accept all vaccination certificates that prove that the holder has completed primary vaccination with one of the approved vaccine doses within the last 270 days, or has received a booster shot. Also, the majority of EU countries permit travellers who have a certificate of recovery certifying they recovered from the virus within the prior 180 days.
Negative COVID-19 test results can, however, be problematic and are generally not accepted if they have been issued outside the EU/Schengen Area. The effect of this is that third-country nationals need to hold a vaccination or recovery certificate in order to be exempt from additional entry rules.
Italy and Austria are the exceptions. They apply the same rules for all travellers. The presentation of any one of the three certificates should gain the holder entry into the country.
