The details of the European health certificate are clear: it should be operational in summer and will only be used for movement between countries

As Rasa Juknevičienė MEP said, the European Parliament (EP) should make a decision on the document in late April or early May, and the certificate is scheduled to be used this summer.

„Vaccination, negative test and relapse are three types of certificate. The certificate will be free, it will be possible to use it on paper and in digital format. This is not a vaccination passport. It cannot be called a vaccination passport, as we sometimes like to call it, because it is not just a document for vaccines, ”explained R. Juknevičienė at a press conference on Friday.

According to the politician, the document will enter into force simultaneously for all Europeans.

“Trust in this document is very important. All citizens must receive a certificate, regardless of the vaccine. It is important that it is registered with the European Medicines Agency. The state can choose other vaccines, but one or another country cannot obliged to approve vaccines, ”said R. Juknevičienė.

He also explained that the passport of opportunity that is planned to be introduced in Lithuania is a different document: a European certificate. it will only be used for cross-border movements.

“It will not be used for any other purpose than transboundary movement. Other documents can, and have, the right of nation states to accept all possibilities for internal use, (…) but they will have to confirm this in national legislation. It is important to emphasize this, not to confuse the documents in any way and not to confuse them, they do not replace each other ”, said the MEP.

At a press conference, Karolis Žemaitis, advisor to the Minister of Economy and Innovation, pointed out that the opportunity passport introduced in Lithuania would later be integrated into the European one, so it would not be necessary to have two documents.

“The opportunity passport would allow a specific function for indoor catering, for large indoor or outdoor events, for sports club training, for those activities that are closed and unlikely to open soon, that is the goal. (…) Colleagues at the Registry Center have repeatedly assured us that technologically the fact that we have a system will allow us to adapt more quickly to a European solution, ”said K. Žemaitis.

Its scope is a national activity and with the European we see synergies, no more than a few separate documents. (…) The objective is that it is not a separate application, but that just when we have a European solution, our national solution is integrated into the European one and we do not have to walk with two virtual or physical passports, ”said the Minister’s Advisor .

The validity of the European certificate will depend on the World Health Organization (WHO).

“The certificate will be valid until the WHO announces the end of the pandemic. There will be no more than necessary,” said R. Juknevičienė.

Some details remain unclear

At the time, MEP Petras Auštrevičius said the document was valid for half a year.

“This passport is valid for 180 days in one way or another, because it is believed that there must be a certain period of reliability of vaccination. It is not known how long the vaccines will be sufficient for protection. The so-called extinction criterion is incorporated. People must understand that both the vaccine and the passport are not a citizen’s passport when they are valid for ten years, “said P. Auštrevičius.

It is not yet clear whether and how much states will pay for coronavirus testing themselves.

“Different national policies, different test prices in Member States are very annoying for people. Some understanding would be needed in this area. As I understand it, we still do not have this answer in Lithuania,” said the MEP.