how should the health passport travel within the European Union?

In view of the approach of summer and the revival of the ailing tourism industry, the European Union has reached an agreement to create a certificate to facilitate travel to Europeans who have vaccinated against the coronavirus, have antibodies or test negative.

The document, which will be multilingual, free and distributed on digital and physical media, will finally be called “EU Digital Covid Certificate” and it will be valid in all countries of the bloc from July 1.

The aim is to facilitate mobility and reactivate a sector as valuable as tourism.

With this new document, it should end the chaos of quarantines, tests and measurements, in which traveling was practically an obstacle course.

The certificate does not automatically release the traveler from the obligation to comply with restrictions on arrival at destination, such as compliance with a quarantine or a new PCR test, but it does include the commitment of Member States to in principle, refrain from imposing this type of additional measure.

Which vaccines are valid?

The countries of the European Union must recognize the certificates issued by the other partners of the block to the people vaccinated with the complete directive of one of the vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), it is for the moment the serums of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Janssen.

They can also choose to accept other vaccines if they have emergency authorization issued by another member state or by the World Health Organization.

“The European Parliament did not achieve what we asked for, but we have significantly improved the proposals,” said European Parliament chief negotiator and Socialist MEP Juan Fernando López Aguilar, assuming the capitals accepted neither the mandatory free PCRs nor the exemption from restrictive measures.

López Aguilar, who appeared before the press on Thursday after the fifth round of negotiations which resulted in the agreement, stressed that the consensus reached implies that the Council accepts the principle of restore the right to free movement in the Schengen borderless area for all Europeans and also that there will be a “substantial reduction” in the “unbearable” cost of testing.

Travelers restrictions

The agreement between the negotiators of the Council and the European Parliament, which must still be validated by the 27th and by the plenary session of the European Parliament, also provides that the restrictions that apply to travelers holding this certificate are “proportionate” and are set in accordance with what is established by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

These measures must be notified at least 48 hours in advance by the Member State to its partners and to the Commission, which in turn will inform the European Parliament.

Thus, the text indicates that national governments should refrain from imposing additional measures on travelers holding this certificate, such as respecting quarantines on arrival at destination or carrying out a second PCR, although a mandatory directive is not set because these are national powers.

Finally, the European Parliament has not achieved the objective that all PCRs carried out in connection with the certificate are free, but it is envisaged that additional funds can be allocated to pay for them and that these tests must be “accessible”. to Europeans.

There was already an agreement between the institutions to allocate about 100 million euros of the emergency instrument to support countries in the purchase of PCR tests and antigens, but with the agreement it is envisaged to ‘allocate more resources later, without specifying a number. .

All EU institutions have also clarified that this certificate should not be understood as a travel document or passport that grants rights in terms of free movement among other reasons, but rather as a certificate containing basic medical information. to facilitate travel.

The regulations designed for its operation, in any case, are linked to the pandemic and a twelve-month application is planned, after which it will be suspended.

Source: DPA and RFI

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