Mexico in talks with EU to facilitate travel to Europe

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Mexican government is in dialogue with the European Union to achieve that travelers from Mexico be accepted in the region without needing a vaccine approved by the European agency EMA, advised this Tuesday (3) the Mexican Foreign Minister, Marcelo Ebrard.

The Foreign Affairs Secretary said that in the United States, they do not require vaccination to enter, but they do require a PCR test, and added that “in the case of the European Union, it will depend on where we are on the traffic light.”

Read also: Check out our coverage on Mexico

According to him, the “norm” of the European Union is that if Mexico is in “red color,” the traveler will be asked to be inoculated with the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

“But we are in talks with the European Union so that this is not the case for all travelers from Mexico. That is, they can enter with PCR. If we are not in the red, we can enter with PCR,” he concluded.

Since July 1, the so-called “covid passport”, a document with three first conditions issued by national authorities, has been in force in the European Union.

The three conditions are: full vaccination schedule, having had a negative result in the coronavirus test – both PCR and antigen test – and/or having recovered from an infection in the last six months.

These are the main requirements for visitors that apply in most European countries, although some add other restrictions such as mandatory registration or quarantine, depending on the origin.

So far, there are four vaccines already authorized for inoculation in the European Union: those developed by Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Janssen.

On July 20, the continued review of Vidprevtyn, a vaccine against covid-19 developed by the French laboratory Sanofi Pasteur, began.

About 48 million people have received at least one dose of covid vaccine in Mexico, but some drugs are not authorized by the European Union, such as the Russian Sputnik V or the Chinese Sinovac.