Hello, I'm Simon Calder and thanks for joining me for today's independent travel podcast,

bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape,

looking forward to one, or, in my case, just got back from a fantastic long weekend in the

beautiful nation of Northern Ireland. Well, first of February is when

everything changed, but then not much changed across Europe. Let me explain what has happened

and indeed what hasn't. The European Union has decided that it's really time to have some kind

of consistent common rules right across the EU so that European travellers can get around

within the 27 nations of the EU and indeed people like us from outside can go in

and travel around and get out and have some reasonably consistent rules. The most significant

thing that I've taken away from this is that travellers will be recognised as fully vaccinated

for only nine months after their last jab.

That's effectively what the EU is promising as part of their coordinated approach to facilitate safe free movement during the pandemic.

They say, effectively, that after nine months, you will not be able to

enjoy the same protection from your vaccination and therefore your validity expires. And this is

obviously a way of encouraging people to get boosters while of course keeping us all safe.

They say that, yeah, we're going to continue to have this map of Europe compiled by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

This has green, orange, red or dark red. And there will be the

emergency handbrake rule that will be allowed to be applied to restrict travel if necessary.

However, as I may have pointed out before, all EU countries are sovereign, particularly

when it comes to health, and therefore these are only recommendations.

One country which has already signed up for the final dose within the past 270 days rule

is Spain, by far the most popular country for UK citizens. And I'm

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