The US has failed to make it on to a shortlist of countries to be exempted from an EU coronavirus ban on travel from outside the bloc, under a draft being voted on by member states.
Residents from a maximum of 15 nations — including China, Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia — would be welcomed in the EU and the largely overlapping Schengen common travel area from July 1, if the proposal is approved on Tuesday.
The US has been excluded along with most of the rest of the world under the criteria, which include trends in published pandemic infection rates and whether these are currently higher or lower than those in the EU’s 27 countries. Washington retains its own ban imposed in March on visitors from Ireland and the 26-country Schengen area, which includes 22 EU member states.