brussels the european union is edging toward finalizing a list of countries whose citizens will be allowed to enter europe again in coming days with americans almost certain to be excluded in the short term due to the number of us coronavirus casesspains foreign minister said that the list which is likely to be made public tuesday could contain 15 countries that are not eu members and whose citizens would be allowed to visit from july 1eu envoys in brussels worked over the weekend to narrow down the exact criteria for countries to be included mostly centered on their ability to manage the spread of the disease importantly the countries are also expected to drop any travel restrictions they have imposed on european citizensthe number of confirmed cases in the united states has surged over the past week and president donald trump also suspended the entry of all people from europes id checkfree travel zone in a decree in march making it highly unlikely that us citizens would qualifyinfection rates in brazil russia and india are high too and their nationals are also unlikely to make the cutspanish foreign minister arancha gonzalez laya said the eu is considering whether to accept travelers from china if beijing lifts restrictions on european citizens morocco is another possibility although its government doesnt plan to open borders until july 10she said she wasnt aware of pressure from the united states for the eu to reopen travel to its nationals adding that countries have been chosen according to their coronavirus statistics whether similar or not to that in the eu trends of contagion and how reliable their data isthis is not an exercise to be nice or unfriendly to other countries this is an exercise of selfresponsibility she told spains cadena ser radio on mondaythe safe country list would be reviewed every 14 days with new countries being added and some possibly dropping off depending on how the spread of the disease is being managedmore than 15 million americans are estimated to travel to europe annually and any delay would be a further blow to virusravaged economies and tourism sectors on both sides of the atlantic around 10 million europeans are thought to cross the atlantic for vacations and business each yearthe 27 eu nations and four other countries that are part of europes schengen area a 26nation bloc where goods and people move freely without document checks appear on track to reopen borders between each other from wednesdayonce that happens and the green light is given restrictions on nonessential travel to europe from the outside world which were imposed in march to halt new virus cases from entering would gradually be lifted