EU recommends reimposing travel restrictions on American visitors because the US COVID-19 outbreak is so bad

• The EU removed the US from its "safe" countries list, signaling member nations should limit travel.
• But the recommendation isn't mandatory, and EU members can decide whether to follow it.
• Visitors from "safe" countries don't have to quarantine, just provide vaccine proof or a negative COVID-19 test.

The European Union recommended Monday that member countries reimpose travel restrictions on US visitors due to rising COVID-19 cases.

The EU proposed stopping nonessential travel from the US as coronavirus cases, fueled by the highly transmissible Delta variant, spread across the country.

Five other countries - Israel, Kosovo, Lebanon, Montenegro, and North Macedonia - were also dropped from the EU's "safe" travel list.

"Non-essential travel to the EU from countries or entities not listed ... is subject to temporary travel restriction," the European Council said in a statement, adding, "This is without prejudice to the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on non-essential travel to the EU for fully vaccinated travellers."

Two EU officials told Reuters on Friday that the European Union was starting procedures to remove the US from its list of "safe" countries whose citizens could travel to the EU without additional quarantine or testing requirements.

On Sunday, The New York Times spoke with three diplomats who said that after the US was removed from the "safe list," it would be up to individual European countries to determine whether to impose restrictions.

Countries on the EU's list can travel to the 27-nation bloc without quarantine by showing proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours before arrival, according to the European Council.

For a country to qualify for nonessential travel to the bloc, it must meet two guidelines. First, the country must have no more than 75 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents over two weeks, according to EU guidelines. And second, the country should also have a "stable or decreasing trend of new cases over this period" compared to 14 days before.

Data from The New York Times coronavirus tracker indicates that the US meets the first requirement but not the second. In the past week, 47 new cases were reported for every 100,000 US residents, the tracker shows. The US has recorded a million new cases in the past 14 days, the tracker indicates - an increase of 20% from 14 days ago.

The recommendations the European Council makes are not mandatory. Member states can decide whether they will abide by the council's suggestions. It's unclear which countries will follow the guidelines and what timeline they'll follow in doing so.

Europe started opening its borders to other countries in the summer to shore up its economy. The United States was listed as a safe country on June 18 by the European Council after a swift vaccination rollout that saw case numbers fall.

Airline carriers started increasing their flights between Europe and the US after the announcement, eager to stem losses from border closures, CNBC reported. The impending restrictions are likely to set carriers back once again.

The European Council did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.