Seven EU countries start using COVID certificate today: key features

In total, seven European Union countries, including Germany, Greece and Denmark, started on Tuesday at deliver the first European certificates that will allow tourists to travel without restriction on being able to prove that they have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, have a recent negative test or have already overcome the disease.

They are the first group of countries to implement the European system for issuing European certificates and checking their validity, but others, like Spain, are expected to join in the coming days., which is expected to do so next Monday, June 7, as the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez recently announced.

The outputs are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland, although in cases like German it is a gradual entry because at the moment they only issue the certificate in some of their regions or only certify one of the three possible options.

In the test phase since mid-May, This Tuesday, the common platform was officially launched which will allow verification of the security features that contain the QR codes of all certificates and which countries will join as they have their entire system ready.

Formally in effect for the whole of the EU from June 1 The new European platform provides for a transition period for the most backward countries so that they can join the project until mid-August.

The holder of the EU Covid Digital Certificate can demonstrate when traveling within the European Union that You are not at risk of spreading the virus because you have been vaccinated, have recently recovered from the disease, or have recently tested negative.

The document, free and in several languages, will provide basic medical information on the traveller’s situation with regard to the coronavirus, but it will not allow the exchange or storage of personal data during the process to verify its authenticity when the owner shows it to travel.

With all this, it is expected that the Member States do not place additional restrictions on them such as quarantine compliance or performing additional PCR tests once they arrive at their destination, although they are exclusively national powers, everything will depend on the decision of each government.

In fact, the Twenty-Seven agreed to a “emergency break” to can urgently reimpose restrictions if a high risk of contagion or spread of new dangerous variants is detected in a specific country. For the sake of coordination, countries taking this action should notify the changes to both the European Commission and their partners in the EU and ensure that they are proportionate and non-discriminatory measures.

Precisely this Monday, Brussels provided a series of clarifications on the regulation governing the European certificate in order to facilitate its application, but also to call on the capitals to initiate a gradual withdrawal of all measures restricting travel, not only for certificate holders but also for those who do not even have this title, they travel from low risk areas (“green” or “orange” areas).

Thus, the community executive specifies that the certificate for vaccinated will be valid from 14 days after completing the vaccination schedule (two doses in all vaccines except Janssen, which is a single dose) and proposes that the certificate for those who have recovered from the infection be valid for 180 days.

The Commission also notes that Linked PCR the certificate can be issued up to 72 hours before travel and encourages Member States to accept rapid antigen tests as their effectiveness increases, valid 48 hours before travel.

In any case, these are recommendations from the Community Executive that the 27 can undertake to follow., will analyze them this Wednesday at the ambassadorial level for the first time, but they are not obliged to follow them.

(with EP information)

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