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TOURISM

Will France be added to the UK’s green list for travel?

With daily case numbers in the UK now almost five times higher than those in France, is the country likely to make it onto the UK's green list - meaning an end to quarantines and expensive testing kits for travellers?

Published: 22 June 2021 16:58 CEST
Updated: 23 June 2021 09:22 CEST
Will France be added to the UK's green list for travel?
Images: AFP/ Guillaume Rozier

Like France, the UK operates a three-tier system for travel, grading countries as red, orange and green and France and the UK are currently on each other’s orange lists.

What that means for travellers though, varies quite significantly.

In France everything depends on your vaccine status – if you’re fully vaccinated (two weeks after your second jab or four weeks after if you had the single-dose Johnson & Johnson) then you can travel to France for any reason, including tourism.

You do still need a negative Covid test (a PCR test from the previous 72 hours or an antigen test taken within 48 hours) but you don’t need to quarantine.

EXPLAINED How France’s traffic light system for travel works

If you are not vaccinated or have only had your first dose so far, then travel to France is only possible for essential reasons – find the full list of accepted reasons HERE. You will need a negative Covid test and will have to self-isolate for seven days on arrival, although the quarantine is not enforced by the authorities at this stage.

If you’re going to the UK, your vaccine status is irrelevant.

All travellers from orange list countries such as France must present a negative Covid test on arrival (PCR test or antigen test) and must then pay for one of the compulsory travel testing kits to use while there – these are expensive, costing from around £160 up to £300 depending on the provider.

Travellers also have to quarantine for 10 days on arrival, although this can be done at home or with family or friends. There is an option to pay an extra £150 to end the quarantine on day 5, after a negative Covid test.

France’s travel list is reviewed every three weeks, although as case numbers in the UK are rising it is unlikely that the country will quickly join all EU countries, Australia, Israel, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Lebanon, the USA and Canada on the green list.

In the UK, there is a possibility of two things happening to make travel from France easier – either a system to recognise fully vaccinated travellers or the moving of France to the UK’s green list.

Green list

Arrivals into the UK from green list countries do not have to quarantine, although they still need to present a Covid test at the border and pay for a travel test pack once in the UK.

The UK government says the formula for calculating which countries go on the green list is based on case numbers and vaccination rates and at present the list of green countries is short and includes some pretty obscure destinations (no offence, Tristan da Cunha). Among European countries, only Iceland is on the green list after Portugal was removed.

In terms of case numbers, France is now reporting fewer daily cases than the UK while showing a steady decline in case numbers and hospitalisations.

Every part of mainland France is now under the alert level of 50 cases per 100,000 people with a national incidence level of 25.2 and an R rate of 0.58, meaning case numbers are halving week on week.

In the UK, cases are climbing again and are approaching the level of 10,000 new cases per day, while France is showing a weekly average of 2,200 cases a day.

The below chart from French health journalist Nicolas Berrod shows how, 13 days after cases in the UK overtook those in France, the daily rate in the UK is now nearly five times higher than in France.

Looking at vaccines, the UK is still significantly ahead of France after it got off to a much quicker start – the UK now has 43 million people with at least one dose, compared to France’s 32 million, while 31 million are fully vaccinated compared to France’s 18 million.

Vaccinated travellers

The other thing that could help at least some travellers is recognition of vaccinated status by the UK. From July 1st, the EU vaccine passport will mean those fully vaccinated in France can travel freely around the EU and Schengen zone by using their vaccine passport.

No longer a member of the EU, however, the UK will not benefit from this.

However there are signs that the UK government is considering recognising the vaccination status of travellers, with British health secretary Matt Hancock telling journalists that they are “working on it”.

At this stage, there is no detail to the plan however, and when asked if the system would be in place by the beginning of August, he told Sky News: “We’ll get there when it’s safe to do so.”

There is also some doubt as to who this would apply to, with Hancock speaking about British travellers returning from foreign travel, so it is not clear whether the British will only recognise the vaccine status of people jabbed in the UK, or whether vaccine certificates from other countries will also be recognised.

We will update our Travelling to France section as soon as there are any changes.

Member comments

  1. Of course it’s unclear what the rules for entering the UK will be due to a government that makes it up as it goes along. The credibility of anything Hancock says must be seriously questionable when even the PM thinks he’s “totally ******* hopeless”.

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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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