France, the Netherlands and Belgium have all announced they will reopen their borders and allow transport links with the UK but with a number of restrictions in place.
The French government has announced it will reopen its borders to travel
from the UK but only for limited groups of people and then only if they have received
a negative Covid test less than 72 hours before departure.
The government said it would allow entry to French and European nationals, habitual
French residents – including British people – plus a number of essential travellers,
although this does not include regular business travellers.
The government said, “Whatever their nationality, all travellers will
therefore be subject to the obligation to present to the airline, maritime or
rail company an analytical laboratory document containing the negative result
of a Sars-CoV-2 test. The border control services will also be able to verify
this.”
The French authorities will require either a PCR test or an antigen test which
is sensitive to the new VUI-2020-12-01 variant, a list of which will be
published by the French health ministry.
The exemptions include diplomats, health professional involved in the fighting
Covid, transport workers and academics working at a French educational
establishment or research laboratory who travels for study and teaching
purposes.
The rules will remain in place
until 6 January. The EU is expected to come up with a coordinated approach by
that date, the French said.
The Dutch government has also lifted its ban
on air and ferry travel from the UK as of 00.01 Dutch time today.
The government said that all passengers from the UK – including EU nationals – must be in possession of a negative PCR
test obtained no more than 72 hours prior to scheduled
arrival. The government is “strongly urging” those who do arrive to quarantine
themselves for ten days.
Belgium has also relaxed its ban
and said that between 23 December and 31
December, Belgian citizens and residents, as well as limited number of other
groups whose travel is “strictly necessary and which cannot be postponed”, can enter the country.
The list of exemptions includes
transport workers, diplomats, journalists and people travelling for urgent
family reasons.
Those arriving may be required
to quarantine for seven days.
From 25 December, a negative PCR test taken at the earliest 48 hours prior to
arrival in Belgium will be necessary for all non-residents, regardless of their
nationality