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Can non-vaccinated travellers enter France via EU countries like Spain?

Travel into France from within the EU is now much more relaxed, with no need to justify essential reasons for travel and fully-vaccinated travellers no longer required to present a Covid test - but what about people coming from non-EU countries such as the UK and USA?

Published: 10 June 2021 12:04 CEST
Can non-vaccinated travellers enter France via EU countries like Spain?
Photo: Eric Piermont/AFP

Under France’s new traffic light travel system, fully-vaccinated travellers can enter France from non-EU countries such as the UK, USA and Canada, but for those who are not vaccinated travel is still only allowed for essential reasons.

EXPLAINED This is how France’s traffic light travel system works

If you’re coming into France via an EU country, however, things are much freer as this is part of the green zone with looser travel restrictions.

And readers have asked us whether it’s possible to take advantage of the more relaxed inter-EU travel rules by coming to France via another EU country such as Spain or Germany.

Unfortunately, there are two problems with this idea.

The first is that French travel rules state: “Travellers arriving from an EU Member State but having stayed in a non-EU Member State within the last 14 days before arrival, must follow the procedure for travellers arriving from outside the EU.”

So if you’re coming to France from the UK via Spain, you will still need to follow the rules for entry from the UK, unless you are prepared to spend 14 days in Spain before travelling on to France. 

The second is that many other EU countries have their own travel restrictions in place for non-EU travel which are as strict if not stricter than France’s so there may be little advantage in coming via another country.

ALSO READ: Can families with unvaccinated children travel to France under traffic light system?

Travel into Germany is currently strictly limited for arrivals from the UK over concerns about virus variants. Travellers all have to present a negative covid test and some groups will need to quarantine – click here for details.

Leisure travel to Italy is allowed from the US, provided that the travellers arrive by one of the ‘Covid-tested’ flights approved by the government, which are available on certain airlines only. For UK travellers, only a negative Covid test is required – click here for full details.

For British travellers, Spain has the most relaxed entry requirements, but although there is no longer a requirement for tests or quarantines, travellers will still have to fill out health paperwork before entering – click here for details.

For other non-EU arrivals, the Spanish rules are essentially the same as France’s – only fully vaccinated travellers can enter the country for non-essential reasons – full details here.

ALSO READ: How can travellers to France from non-EU countries prove they are vaccinated?

Member comments

  1. Do you know if you have vaccinated parents, can kids come into France with a negative Covid test?

  2. Can you provide the actual link to the rules quoted above regarding spending 14 days in another green country before coming to France? I have been through the link provided and cannot find it anywhere. I really need the wording to have for border control. Thank you

  3. Having just travelled to Spain from France to meet up with English family not yet fully vaccinated due to being too young to have received second jab, I can confirm that the border between France and Spain has no checkpoint. It goes to follow that anyone flying from the UK into Spain can easily travel inwards to France.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

Published: 26 March 2024 09:55 CET
German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of €420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of €2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some €200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of €2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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