VILNIUS, Jun 23, BNS – Certain routes outside the Schengen area might be resumed as of July, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius says, mentioning Georgia and Ukraine.

"Certain outbound routes from the Schengen area are likely to be reopened as of July 1, but it will not be something massive and incautious. Definitely not. We hope to resume contact with Georgia and Ukraine, and we also hoped to do so with Israel but the situation has worsened there recently," Linkevicius told the public Lithuanian Radio on Tuesday.

The minister also underlined that currently Lithuania is applying the criteria of no more than 25 coronavirus cases per population of 100,000 for people to be allowed to come to the country, and residents of Sweden, Portugal and the UK are not allowed to come.

Linkevicius confirmed there's no plan to resume flights with the UK and that's being done purposefully due to high morbidity.

"We have no plans to resume those routes with the UK as yet. People can come to Lithuania from there but it's more complicated, more expensive, and that's a certain filter, and that's being done purposefully as we see that's not safe," Linkevicius said.

Commenting on the European Commission's call to reopen external borders as of July, Linkevicius noted that it's a recommendation.

"We are trying to do it regionally. By setting an example for everyone, we created the so-called "Baltic bubble" on May 15, a zone of free travel, and showed that we need to coordinate our actions more. Speaking of July 1, it will be similar as we are discussing criteria and we have introduced the 25 cases per 100,000 criterion," the minister said.

Currently, foreigners can come to Lithuania without any restrictions from 28 countries, including Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Malta, Denmark, Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Austria, Ireland, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Iceland, Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia, Latvia, Hungary, Slovakia, Croatia and Lichtenstein.

Due to high numbers of coronavirus cases, citizens and legal residents of Sweden, Portugal and the UK are still barred from coming to Lithuania.

Lithuanian citizens are allowed to return from any country.

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