On Friday the economy ministers of the European Union countries recommended that EU member states open their borders to American visitors in summer 2021, in an effort to recover from the year-long economic slump caused by COVID-19 travel restrictions.

But the EU recommendation in itself doesn't enable Americans to resume visiting Europe immediately - reopening is at the discretion of the individual EU countries.

However, most - including the most popular destinations like France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain - either have already reopened, or are expected to open right away.

On Friday, the US was added to a list of countries considered safe from an epidemiological perspective. Residents of these countries will be able to enter the EU even if not yet fully vaccinated, on the basis of a negative PCR test.

Individual EU nations are free to impose their own rules regarding testing and quarantining, so before booking a trip to Europe this year, be sure to check all the fine print on the websites of EU countries you plan to visit, to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Note also that the reopening ot the UK has just been put back another month because of concern over the Delta variant of COVID-19, and last week Portugal saw an increase in the number of new infections.

And the EU itself also has enacted a law that enables it to close the EU border if COVID-19 statistics should suddenly worsen.