The Cannes Film Festival and its Marché du Film have negotiated a quarantine exemption for non-vaccinated attendees arriving from countries on the European Union (EU)’s amber list.
The EU introduced a traffic light-based system to manage safe travel across the bloc during the pandemic at the beginning of June. Under the system, non-vaccinated people arriving from an amber list country needed a “compelling reason”, a negative PCR test, and must quarantine for seven days.
Cannes has negotiated the removal of the requirement of a compelling reason as well as the seven-day quarantine. Like fully vaccinated attendees, non-vaccinated attendees will still need to present a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of departure or an antibody test that is no more than 48 hours old.
“We have obtained a derogation removing the requirement for non-vaccinated accredited attendees from orange list countries to quarantine,” a spokesperson for the festival told Screen. “Those concerned will be requested to sign a protocol that will be sent out by the festival in the coming days that they will need to present on entering the territory.”
This protocol will be in addition to the Attestation Grand Evenement and sworn statement documents removing the need for “a compelling reason”, which were sent out by the festival earlier this week.
The UK is one of the biggest attending territories on the amber list.
However travel plans for all UK-based professionals, whether fully vaccinated or not, have been thrown into further doubt this week after German chancellor Angela Merkel called for an EU-wide quarantine for all arrivals from the UK, due to concerns over rising cases of the Delta variant in the country.
It was one of the topics on the table at a European Council meeting of EU leaders in Brussels this Thursday and Friday (June 24-25). France’s president Emmanuel Macron has publicly supported Merkel’s suggestion but Spain, whose economy relies heavily on tourism, is reported to have pushed back on the idea.
A general statement put out after the meeting closed on Friday afternoon said the leaders had discussed the Covid-19 situation and the need “to be vigilant and coordinated with regard to developments, particularly the emergence and spread of variants” but did not make any mention of tighter restrictions for UK arrivals.
“At this time, all Cannes attendees from the UK, whether they’re vaccinated or not, will not have to quarantine,” said the Cannes spokesperson. “That could change but it seems strange given the fact the derogation came through today.”
Under the traffic-light system, fully vaccinated arrivals from countries on the green list are able to travel freely through the 27-territory bloc but have to carry a so-called physical or digital green pass showing proof of their inoculation.
Countries on this list comprise all 27 EU territories, Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, Lebanon and New Zealand. Travellers from Canada and the US were added to the green list on June 17.
The red list covers countries where the virus is still actively circulating and where “worrying variants” are widely present. It currently features South Africa, Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Turkey and Uruguay.
Travellers from these countries need a “compelling reason” and PCR tests, and are required to quarantine for between seven to 10 days, depending on whether they are vaccinated or not. Travel to these countries is currently discouraged by the French government.
All other countries that do not figure on the green or red lists are on the amber list.
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