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Angela Merkel said Germany would soon relax restrictions on fully-vaccinated travellers coming back from the united kingdom , after meeting with Boris Johnson at his country retreat of Chequers on what’s likely to be her last trip to Britain as chancellor.

“I assume that within the foreseeable future those that are vaccinated twice are going to be ready to travel again without going into quarantine,” she told reporters.

Berlin signalled in the week that it planned to vary the UK’s designation from “area with a high prevalence of an epidemic variant” to a “high incidence area”.

Currently, anyone coming back from the united kingdom must immediately enter quarantine for 14 days. Travellers from “high incidence areas” must also enter quarantine, but can exit it after 5 days if they test negative for coronavirus – an option not currently available to arrivals from the united kingdom .

The change of designation was excellent news for Johnson’s government. But it had been clear that the united kingdom and Germany are still at odds over Britain’s decision to permit large crowds into the Wembley stadium for the ultimate stages of the Euro 2020 tournament.

Merkel said far fewer fans were allowed to attend the Euro matches held within the southern German city of Munich. “The British government will make its decisions,” she said, “but I’m concerned and sceptical that it’s an honest thing and not a touch an excessive amount of .”

Johnson pointed to the progress made with vaccinations in Britain. “The crucial point is that … here within the UK we’ve built up a really considerable wall of immunity against the disease by our vaccination programme,” Johnson said.

On Thursday Germany’s interior minister Horst Seehofer said it had been “absolutely irresponsible” of UEFA to permit such large crowds at Wembley at a time when the delta variant remains spreading within the UK.