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The European Commission wants to restart travel within the European Union and beyond its borders through what it calls the “digital green certificate”. a document stating that the traveler has been vaccinated against Covid-19. EC President Ursula von der Leyen said last week that the purpose of these certificates was “to ensure that people can enjoy freedom of movement without endangering public health.”
“The ‘Green Digital Certificate’ will be designed to facilitate freedom of movement and to ensure that, despite the restrictions that remain in place, it will only be used when justified and only at an appropriate level,” says the letter sent by Ursula von der Leyen to the United States, according to Politico.
The Commission argued that the use of these certificates is left to the discretion of the Member States, but even in these circumstances, complications related to different opinions between Member States, different vaccination strategies and concerns about privacy risks and moral dilemmas pose problems for initiative.
There is also a lack of clarity as to what the certificate actually represents and what its function would be. The Commission wants this certificate to include not only proof of vaccination against Covid, but also previous test results and information on recovery from the disease.
Southern European countries want to reopen to tourists as soon as possible
At the moment, the plan is especially important for southern Europe, where tourism is a key sector of the economy: countries like Spain, Malta, Cyprus and Greece are heavily dependent on tourism.
“Ensuring the restoration of freedom of movement as soon as possible is a key priority for all of us,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the first European leader to propose the idea.
The other Mediterranean countries also do not want to wait to reopen their tourism sector: the Cypriot government has announced that vaccinated Britons are welcome on holiday in the country without any restrictions from May, and Spain and Greece also announce that they are debating the POSSIBILITY OF A “CORRIDOR”. GREEN “.
Other countries are supporting the idea of the Green Digital Certificate: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz endorsed the idea at an online meeting of European leaders, and Denmark and Sweden announced plans to develop an internal certificate. Estonia also announced that it is working on a global vaccination certificate pilot project in partnership with the World Health Organization.
Concerns about practical and ethical issues
EU leaders agreed last week to work towards a “common approach to vaccination certificates”, but that doesn’t mean there are no misunderstandings:
“I will not accept a system that conditions access in one country or another to a certificate. Such a document should not grant specific rights to vaccinated people, ”said French President Emmanuel Macron, in the context of ideas supported by other heads of government.
The Belgian head of diplomacy took similar approaches and stressed that “the principle of non-discrimination remains more important than ever.”
In fact, Angela Merkel is not very convinced either: last week she said that a vaccination certificate cannot be the only solution to restart the trip, in a context in which, for example, there is still no possibility of vaccinating minors. Merkel added that a negative PCR test should remain an alternative solution.
Although no leader opposes this idea, in principle, there are many concerns about practical and ethical issues, according to Dutch Prime Minister Rutte. He added that a possible question is also how much vaccinated travelers can transmit the disease, as there is still no conclusive evidence to show any variant in this regard.
Confidentiality and protection of information, important factors in the implementation of the project
EU leaders have agreed to a “uniform” and “interoperable” vaccination certificate for medical purposes since January. Using it for travel would be an additional function.
But if the EU wants to get this system up and running by the summer, in time for the start of the Christmas season, then things need to get going very soon: the certificate needs to be rolled out across individual health and border systems. and the Commission needs to establish a common system for all of this: the Commission president said it would take at least three months to complete, and a document sent to the country delegations had already raised the four-month issue.
“A European system can only work if national systems already exist and are working,” von der Leyen wrote to member states on Friday, calling for previous decisions to be “quickly implemented” for the speedy adoption of the proposal.
Ursula von der Leyen affirms that the certificates will respect the security and confidentiality of the holders and will be carried out in accordance with the principles of respect for the confidentiality of information.
Regulators say, however, that details are vague at the moment and they fear authorities will keep the information for too long.
Vojciech Wiewiorowski, European Data Protection Supervisor, described the idea of an immunity passport as “extreme”.
The French regulator, on the other hand, says that implementation of the system is possible in conjunction with compliance with EU information privacy rules, but believes that information privacy activists will challenge any issues in court and they will be able to win.
The use of vaccines from different sources in EU countries compounds the problem
One possible difficulty is the increasingly different way in which EU countries carry out their vaccination strategy – some countries have even started vaccinating with sera not authorized by European institutions, such as the Russian Sputnik vaccine or the vaccine china from Sinovac – will people be able to vaccinate with these sera to receive the certificate?
The European Commission does not appear to have an answer to the questions yet, but a spokesperson said it was still too early to find a solution. However, doubts in the countries administering the Sputnik vaccine are high: the head of Slovak diplomacy told reporters on Tuesday that in his opinion, vaccines not authorized in the EU as a whole should be treated in the same way. than the authorized ones.
Publisher: Adrian Dumitru
