Reyes Maroto said an upcoming review of EU travel rules would allow greater flexibility with regards to visitors arriving from countries outside the union, so-called third countries.

The minister said that should the UK be placed on the EU’s free-to-travel list, Spain would adapt its national legislation to welcome UK residents; this could come as early as next Thursday (20 May).

Spain will continue to advocate for a regional approach to travel restrictions in its talks with the UK, and stressed she hoped Spain would feature on an upcoming revision of the UK’s "green list".

The clarification comes after comments made by Reyes Maroto during a visit to Alicante on Monday (11 May) where she offered some initial reflection on Spain failing to make that green list in the first instance.

Additionally, she said Spain’s pre-travel PCR test requirement could be dropped for UK arrivals owing to the current low rate of Covid infection in the UK and high rate of Covid-19 vaccination.

Reyes Maroto said Spain would also continue to advocate for unified international travel criteria and a reopening at a European level that makes considerations for non-member states.

“We know what we have to do to enable British travellers to return to Spain," she said. "To continue to lower the accumulated incidence rate of COVID-19 and continue with our vaccination roll-out."