The EU will welcome Canadians for non-essential travel in the coming days, providing a big boost for our summer plans!

Canada will join a group of 10 countries to be listed as safe for leisure travel. The UK, currently dealing with the highly infectious delta variant, has not been included on the list. 

It is no longer required for passengers to provide a negative test or sit through a period of quarantine when entering Europe, those decisions will be left up to the respective countries.

However, current reports suggest that those inoculated with AstraZeneca won’t be recognized as “fully vaccinated” by the EU.

As few as two weeks ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the problems facing this particular vaccine, suggesting that recipients ‘will not be disadvantaged’ when they travel.

This statement followed the news that the vaccine won’t be recognized by many U.S. entities. A move that even surprised David Screech, a B.C. Mayor, who was denied access to Springsteen on Broadway.

Trudeau, who received AstraZeneca himself, said discussions with other countries are ongoing on how to treat recipients. 

“We will definitely make sure that people who got one or two AstraZeneca doses will not be disadvantaged when they want to travel,” he said in French. 

“We hope to be able to resolve those issues in the coming weeks in time for bringing in loosened restrictions around travel. The U.S. hasn’t said yet what their criteria will be. We’re working with them to get on the same page.”

However, in the two weeks since these comment, there is seemingly not much in the way of progress.