Sweden's Foreign Ministry is scrapping its guidance to avoid all non-essential travel to ten EU countries from June 30th.

This guidance has been in place since an early stage in the pandemic, due to global uncertainty and travel bans, and was set to apply until at least July 15th. The advice against travel is not a legally enforced ban, but it does mean that people who travel for tourism purposes would not be covered by travel insurance, for example.

The countries where travellers have the green light to visit from July are: Belgium, Croatia, France, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Portugal, Switzerland and Spain.

This is not based on an assessment of the coronavirus outbreak in those countries, but is based on the fact these countries have not introduced restrictions for Swedes who travel there.

• Checklist: Where in Europe can you travel from Sweden this summer?

As for why Sweden's Nordic neighbours were not included in these new rules, Linde said it was due to Denmark, Norway and Finland having introduced restrictions on travellers from Sweden, including quarantines.

“I would have rather seen a Nordic solution. We tried to get that, but didn't succeed,” she said.

For countries within the EU/EEA other than those ten, the advice against non-essential travel continues to apply until at least July 15th.

At the same time, the ministry has extended advice against non-essential travel to countries outside the EU/EEA until August 31st.

“The lifting of the advice for some European countries does not mean that the situation is as usual again. The situation remains uncertain and changeable, even in Europe,” the ministry warned in a statement.

“There is a great responsibility on the individual. Every traveller should carefully consider their journey, prepare well, stay informed, and follow the local authorities' advice and instructions once there.”

• Explained: Sweden's new rules for travel from overseas
   
• What do Sweden's new travel guidelines mean for tourism this summer?