‘Huge disappointment’ in EU over Biden’s continuing travel ban

The Biden administration’s decision this week to maintain its ban on European travelers indefinitely has left EU officials annoyed and wondering if they should have forced the U.S. to meet the same “reciprocity” requirement imposed on China.

The announcement on Monday by White House press secretary Jen Psaki that the ban would remain in place, citing concerns about the Delta variant, surprised European officials, in part because vaccination rates in the EU, which got off to a slower start, have now surpassed those in the U.S.

But Brussels has refrained from raising a fuss, EU officials and diplomats said, seeing little advantage in creating tension with the Americans as Europe confronts an unpredictable new wave of coronavirus infections.

As EU countries reap the economic benefits of Americans visiting for summer holidays, officials in Brussels said they were focused instead on whether the fast-spreading Delta variant would force them to reimpose their own restrictions — a step that so far has been judged unnecessary.

Despite the lack of public outrage, officials said they were miffed at the failure of the White House to live up to assurances that it would lift its travel ban.

In mid-June, the EU added the U.S. to its “green list,” permitting arrivals of even unvaccinated travelers. Later that month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to Paris, said the administration hoped to lift the ban as soon as possible but declined to specify a date.

A few days later, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas attended an EU-U.S. ministerial meeting in Lisbon, where officials issued a joint statement saying: “Both sides committed to reinitiate secure travel between the United States and EU Member States as soon as possible, based on the principles of mutual cooperation, efficient operation of the international travel system and scientific evidence.”

One senior EU official called the U.S. refusal to lift its ban a “huge disappointment especially after Alex Mayorkas gave us hope.”  

One potential consequence, the official said, is that few EU commissioners would follow through on plans to visit the U.S. in September, a traditional month for high-level diplomatic meetings around the opening of the United Nations General Assembly.

Another senior official said that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had undercut the EU’s ability to demand reciprocity from the United States by rushing to announce the easing of restrictions on U.S. visitors even before the EU’s own member countries formally approved such a move.

At a news conference on Tuesday, a Commission spokesman, Adalbert Jahnz, said that talks were continuing with Washington.

“As you know, we have received reassurances that this is a high priority issue for the U.S. administration,” Jahnz said. “We are engaging in good faith with the U.S.” He added: “Our assessment remains that there is a strong case for the U.S. to reopen to travelers from Europe.”

EU officials, however, concede that there was no heads up from Washington before Psaki’s comments on Monday. They said they were also surprised by new travel warnings by U.S. authorities urging against visits to several European countries, including Spain, Portugal and Cyprus.

And while relations between Brussels and Washington have improved markedly since President Joe Biden took office in January, replacing Donald Trump, officials said the travel issue exposed some limits in the willingness of the U.S. to act in full collaboration. Still, they said that the Commission was focused primarily on upping vaccination rates in Europe, leaving little incentive to raise a diplomatic row by publicly criticizing bans or closures by countries outside the EU’s common travel area.  

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