Estonia’s Foreign Minister: Europe Needs to Revise Travel Policies

Posted date: 22 Jul 2021

Travelling abroad should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, as the Coronavirus infection rate is rising throughout Europe, Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Reinsalu has advised. The minister stressed that restrictions that have been imposed across Europe need to be rethought in order to stop a Europe-wide travel ban, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

“The system of restrictions jointly agreed by the Baltic States has worked well, and the number of infection rate is rising throughout Europe, travelling abroad should be avoided unless absolutely necessary,” he said. However, Estonia’s government is currently focused on two issues, according to him: The first one – the possibility to replace two-week quarantine rule with testing, for internationals arriving in Estonia from countries with high infection rates.The second- how to be organised for the situation with direct flights to countries that have a higher rate of infections than 25 people per 100,000 inhabitants, over a two-week average, as currently, direct flights should stop when this threshold is crossed.

Earlier this week, representatives from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and International Airports Council (ACI) stressed that they would request a UN meeting to adopt travel requirements in order to accept a negative Coronavirus test result within 48 hours, instead of imposing quarantine rules, upon their arrival. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) had previously urged governments across Europe to coordinate to shut border restrictions and find alternatives to quarantine rules, to stop the further devastation on Europe’s economy, caused by the pandemic Coronavirus. IATA had estimated the impacts provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, on economies, employment and air passenger numbers across Europe.

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