This photo illustration shows a French passport and an international certificate of vaccination or profiling in front of the Berlaymont, the headquarters of the European Commission on 13 March 2021 in Brussels, Belgium.
Thierry Monasse | Getty Images
LONDON – The European Commission, the EU’s executive, on Wednesday proposed a vaccination certificate for citizens as a way to promote tourism activities this summer.
Tourism-dependent economies, such as Greece, have insisted on a common EU system that would restore the region again this summer. These countries struggled with fewer visitors during 2020 and want to welcome people back to prevent worse economic scars.
As a result, the Commission has proposed that EU citizens be allowed to use a ‘digital green certificate’ to prove that they have been vaccinated against the virus; that they received a negative Covid-19 test; or they recovered after contracting the coronavirus.
The idea with the other two options in addition to being vaccinated is to prevent criticism that the document will discriminate against those who have not yet been given a chance. However, some countries, including France, are wary of the idea, as young people are the last resort to get a vaccine.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said at a press conference on Wednesday: “The certificate will ensure that the results, which it shows, the data, the minimum set of data are mutually recognized in each Member State.”
“We want to help member states restore freedom of movement in a safe, responsible and reliable way,” she added.
In addition, a vaccination certificate for some EU countries is a difficult pill to swallow, given the freedom of movement policy in the region. Until coronavirus struck, and in most cases, European citizens were able to move from one country to another without a passport control.
The European Commission also said on Wednesday that all vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency should be automatically recognized by other member states under this new system. However, countries that wanted to do so could also recognize the vaccines that have not yet been approved by the European regulator.
Hungary, for example, vaccinates citizens with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V and the shot also from China. It has not yet been approved by the EMA.
The document is expected to contain only a very specific set of data: the name of the citizen and date of birth, the date of issue of the certificate, relevant information about a vaccine, test or repair and a unique identification name.
“It cannot be retained by visited countries,” the commission said in a statement Wednesday.
The Brussels institution also said that the certificate would be free, available in the language of the country and in English, and that it was only a temporary mechanism.
“It will be suspended as soon as the World Health Organization declares the end of the Covid-19 international health crisis,” the commission said in a document.
Wednesday’s proposal will be discussed at the next European summit, later this month. In February, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said it could take three months to implement a digital certificate.
The various EU countries and the European Parliament must approve the Commission’s proposal before it can be implemented.