Vaccine visa claims are false says French EU official
Claims Non-EU citizens must be vaccinated against Covid-19 to obtain a visa to enter the EU-Schengen Area have been dismissed as fake.
The source of the false information is a website called SchengenVisaInfo.com, which cites an anonymous EU official.
The claim has since gathered significant traction on social media after Parisian-based online news site Le Courrier du Soir ran the story – quoting the unknown official.
The unnamed EU source said: “Once the Covid-19 vaccine is found and available to everyone, visa applicants will be required to be vaccinated in the future especially if the virus remains active.”
However, this has been dismissed by French representatives to the European Commission speaking to FranceInfo.
They said: “No decision has been taken on the conditions of entry into Schengen once the borders are reopened.”
The article in the Le Courrier du Soir also implies that SchengenVisaInfo.com website is an official EU website, when it states on its website that it is an ‘independent Schengen Visa related information and news publishing website’.
The official European Commission website, which details visa information is at ec.europa.eu.
Le Courrier du Soir also makes claims in the article about a compulsory vaccine policy covering the EU, however, vaccine policies and how they are implement are determined by each individual country.
There are several border and travel restrictions across the Schengen area as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
At present the EU’s external borders have been closed since March 17 with restrictions in place until May 15, unless it is deemed necessary to extend that date.
At the end of March, The European Commission published advice for all member states detailing “the implementation of the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU”.
The institution specifies these measures should apply to countries outside of the Schengen area. These are Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Cyprus and Ireland. The non-EU members associated with Schengen are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
According to the European Commission's guide, the restriction on movement to these countries applies to “non-resident third-country nationals who present relevant symptoms or have been particularly exposed to a risk of infection and who are considered to pose a threat for public health”.
Exceptions are made for health professionals, frontier workers or passengers travelling for family reasons.
