EU countries have agreed common criteria to coordinate coronavirus travel restrictions, in an effort to end the confusing patchwork of national rules that has developed during the pandemic.
Ministers from the 27 countries agreed the new "traffic light" system guidelines at a meeting in Luxembourg, putting in place a common mapping system to define risk areas in the EU.
However, the rules are not binding on member states.
With cases spiking across Europe, only a few areas would currently qualify for the lowest-risk "green" band allowing unrestricted travel.
They include most of eastern Germany, parts of the Nordic and Baltic countries, some areas of Bulgaria and Greece, and one zone in Italy.
EU nations will be encouraged to apply "proportionate" measures for medium-risk orange and high-risk red zones, which could include a quarantine or a test but not a blanket bar on entry.
The 27 nations are to supply data to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control on numbers of new cases per 100,000 people in the past 14 days, plus numbers of tests and percentage of positive tests in the past week.
The agency will then produce a colour-coded map.
Though individual EU countries are free to determine their own measures, they are urged to be consistent.
"We welcome this agreement to bring more order to a currently confusing situation," the European Commission said in a statement
Ireland has so far been operating its own system of Green List countries for travel.
Last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs said that from 12 October, there would be no countries on the travel Green List.
When countries are on the list, people can travel there from Ireland without restricting their movements on their return.
The list includes European/EEA countries with a 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 of 25 or less, which is based on data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
However, following a review of the latest data no country was found to be below the required 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases.
