[ad_1]
The European Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni, guaranteed this Monday that “the discussion on the certification of vaccines is still in a very incipient phase”, and should serve mainly as “proof that they have been vaccinated” and not as a travel passport . . Asked at a press conference that followed a Eurogroup meeting, the official explained that “special rights cannot be given to some until the vaccine is available to all”, something that will hardly be achieved before the end of the year.
The idea of creating a vaccination ‘passport’ that facilitates movement in the European space without the need for a quarantine period is not ruled out, but it should not see the light of day at European level in the short term. At least not in a concerted way between the 27 Member States, since, unilaterally, countries like Sweden or Denmark have announced this type of initiative. The same is happening or is being discussed in different formats in different countries of the world, such as Israel, India or the United Kingdom.
The issue has raised some ethical questions related to discrimination between citizens, but various voices in the European Union – including the president of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen – do not completely rule out this hypothesis, as long as the legal questions are resolved. In the first place, for purely medical and public health needs, but also as a way to promote the resumption of tourist activity and facilitate intra-community circulation.
The matter was discussed in the leaders’ video conference on January 21. At the time, the heads of state and government agreed to work on a common certificate format for medical purposes, leaving the debate on other uses for later. For now, it is intended to support the interoperability of this type of certificates and guarantee the standardization and mutual recognition of vaccination certificates as medical documents. The possibility of global coordination through the World Health Organization is also admitted, however, the debate and the attempt at coordination continue and there is no date for a final consensus.
