How is the new health pass that will allow travel to 27 European countries

FRANKFURT.- A short term, videoconferences with 30 countries and a sea of ​​uncertainties were the challenges faced by a team of engineers, coordinated from Germany, to shape the a European health certificate that allows a summer without borders.

After ten weeks of work, “we feel relief, but also joy and pride” to see this work of the European Commission take shape, he explains to AFP Josef Lieven, co-director of the project within the German group T-Systems, associated with his compatriot SAP, a software specialist.

The digital platform to centralize health information for European travelers is ready.

Seven European Union (EU) countries started issuing their first certificates on Tuesday (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland). The widespread launch is scheduled for July 1.

“We have created a solution in Europe that other countries, just as technologically advanced, still do not have”, explains Lieven. The European negotiations were difficult to reach an agreement between the Member States on this common instrument. On May 20 they gave him the green light.

Using the same team they formed to work on previous coronavirus-related applications, Lieven and his engineers began coding a prototype of the pass even before they received full specifications, according to the outlet. Local.

Members of the European Parliament reached a political agreement to move forward with the certificate in May and from that point on, there was always a risk that a country would demand an unexpected change.

The engineering group started working in April with “pressure from the short time available” to get there before the summer and the resumption of tourism in the EU, the engineer said. “We started to code, but there was still uncertainty about the evolution of the political context,” recalls Lieven.

Other countries have also launched the creation of certificates. The agency Reuters reported that the Prime Minister of Ireland, Micheál Martin announced last week that he would adopt a certificate allowing his citizens to move freely within the EU, the United Kingdom and the United States from July 19.

A call with the project manager at the Commission every morning made it possible to set daily objectives. The SAP team and T-Systems, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, met at noon. In ten autonomous groups, about fifty people in total worked on this instrument, whose heart is a QR code, with electronic signature, readable in the 27 EU countries, Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.

Another challenge: channeling exchanges through weekly videoconferences with 130 participants from 30 countries, and in groups by chatting via Slack instant messaging. This merger also had its advantages: “sometimes we got questions and developers from other countries responded” with their solution, says Lieven.

This computer scientist had already helped connect the various national health monitoring applications created during the pandemic. The work on the health pass “is similar” but “still a little more complex, because the willingness of countries to participate from the launch was very strong,” he says.

The last three weeks – the most stressful – were used to establish the link, country by country, between the national systems and the European servers, and to carry out detailed tests.

They also struggled: at the first of these dress rehearsals on May 10, the two countries planned were still not prepared. “We didn’t have anyone to test with,” he recalls. “It was a surprise”. But “from the second day, Tuesday, everything worked” and in three weeks more than 20 countries were connected.

As with any large IT project, “there is still a bit of work to be done” and failures are not to be ruled out in the early days, but Josef Lieven, after these “exhausting” weeks, feels he has done his duty.

The project has a particular charm, according to him, “because we ourselves are beneficiaries”. He thinks of his son, who lives in Denmark: “When he comes next time, he will be able to travel more easily thanks to the digital certificate.”

AFP Agency

THE NATION

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