Travellers from non-European countries will soon be able to enter Italy under facilitated rules as the latter’s authorities have decided to remove the pre-entry testing requirement and the non-essential travel ban.
The news was announced by the Minister of Health of Italy, Roberto Speranza, who said that starting from March 1, travellers from third countries will be subject to the same rules as travellers from the EU.
“From March 1 for arrivals from all non-European countries, the same rules will be in force as already provided for European countries. One of the conditions of the green pass will be sufficient for entry into Italy: vaccination certificate, recovery certificate, or negative test,”
Speranza wrote on his official Twitter account on February 22.
This means that third-country nationals will be able to enter Italy without being subject to additional entry rules as long as they hold a vaccination or recovery certificate or a negative COVID-19 test result.
In addition, such a statement suggests that the travel ban will also be removed, meaning that travellers from non-EU countries will be able to enter Italy for travel purposes without having to provide an essential reason for their trip.
The Italian Ministry of Health is yet to reveal more detailed information regarding this change. However, based on the announcement made by the Minister, it can be inferred that Italy will now apply rules based on a person’s status rather than the country of origin an individual is travelling from.
The decision of Italy to ease the travel rules for third-country travellers follows the recommendation of the Council of the European Union. The Council recommended yesterday that Member States remove the non-essential travel ban for citizens of third countries who have been vaccinated or recovered from the COVID-19 disease.
It has been emphasised that the non-essential travel ban should be removed for all third-country travellers who have been vaccinated with one of the vaccines approved for use by the European Medicines Agency or the World Health Organization, provided that the last vaccine dose has been received within the last 270 days.
In addition, the Council recommended that the Member States should also lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel for all persons who have recovered from the COVID-19 disease within 180 days prior to travelling.
Apart from the above-mentioned requirement, the Council also adopted new rules on the issuance of recovery certificates. The Council announced that since February 22, all Member States would be able to issue recovery certificates based on a positive rapid antigen test result.
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