this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Because "including Spain, France and Greece" is a rather lacking description for 30 European countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland
Maybe they're selected because they're the most popular destinations? (Nor sure if that true, but it would make sense)
I feel bad for brevity in the presence of such criticism.
Im sorry, English is not my first language and don't understand what you mean, could you explain me?
It’s okay, I’m a native English speaker and don’t understand what they’re saying.
The criticism is that most EU countries were omitted in the description. Having to list them, while complete, is the opposite of a short summary which most reporting aims for. Hence, the death of brevity. Criticizing the description as an omission is not only pedantic but ultimately makes the content worse.
Thos article is about the EU, not sure what Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein am Norway do in that list...
The Schengen area (which has common visa rules) is not the same as the EU. Those four countries are part of the Schengen agreement even though they are not in the EU. Conversely, Ireland is not included because although it is an EU member, it is not in the Schengen zone.
Sorry, I re-read the article and the original announcement by the EU travel authority. Neither makes mention of Schengen, which is what got me confused. The ETIAS site does explicitly list the Schengen countries along with the EU one. And not Ireland. They probably vetoed something and got excluded or something :D
EU countries do not have a single travel authority. 23 of the 27 EU members, four other large countries (Norway, Iceland, CH and Liechtenstein), and three other small countries (Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City) form the Schengen zone, whose travel rules are set by the EU. Three EU members - Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania - have not joined the Schengen system yet. One EU member - Ireland - has its own system and does not even plan to join. Instead, it has open borders with Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK and therefore outside the EU. Hope this helps.
Edit: Ireland cannot join Schengen unless the UK also joins (because they are legally required to have open borders with NI), and the UK has no interest in joining.