European Union countries have agreed to adopt a common "traffic light" system for tourism travel during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It aims to end a confusing patchwork of restrictions across Europe and bring back free movement of people, one of the key principles of the EU.
The system would lead to more "predictability and transparency" when travelling under Covid-19 conditions in the EU, a spokesman for the German EU Council presidency said.
He also called it an "important step forward" for the 27 member trading bloc.
The guidelines, which were backed by a majority of EU governments and will be formally adopted next week, advise that restrictions should be non-discriminatory, proportionate and limited to what is necessary.
Under the plan, regions across the European Union will be designated green, orange or red, based on the degree to which the virus is under control, and grey if data is insufficient.
The idea is that all countries will grant access to visitors from green zones.
While individual EU countries are free to determine their own measures, they will be encouraged to be consistent - for example, setting the same measures for all red zones.
The European Centre of Disease Control will provide weekly updates to assign the colours.
A green status will apply to regions with fewer than 25 infections per 100,000 people in 14 days and where the percentage of positive tests is below 4%.
Based on its current assessment, with Covid-19 cases spiking across Europe, few areas would qualify as green.
These include most of eastern Germany, parts of the Nordic and Baltic countries, Cyprus, certain regions of Bulgaria and Greece and one zone in Italy.
Red means infection rates of 50 or more and positive tests of 4% or higher - or infection rates of over 150, even with a low positive test rate.
At present, the ECDC lists Ireland as having a 14-day cumulative incidence rate of 124.2 virus cases per 100,000.
Worse affected countries include Czech Republic (398), Spain (307), Netherlands (304.3), Belgium (277.7) and France (260.2). Britain's rate is 218.2.
The Department of Foreign Affairs yesterday revealed there will be no countries on Ireland's travel Green List from 12 October.
When countries are on the list, passengers do not have to restrict their movements on their return from those destinations.
Earlier today, Ryanair called on Transport Minister Eamon Ryan to "immediately adopt" the EU 'traffic light' travel system.
