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(CNN) – The door to summer is slowly opening in Europe, and for those who want to wander there to take a vacation amid current Covid restrictions, the key may soon be at hand.
While the borders are expected to remain closed in the coming weeks, the European Union is proposing to deploy a digital green certificate, or vaccination passport, which will allow those with the required loads of approved anti-Covid pharmaceuticals. or antibodies to have had the virus, to travel freely. Negative tests could also be used to qualify.
This is a measure eagerly awaited by major tourist destinations in Europe, including Portugal, Spain and Greece, where the lack of visitors over the past year has left gaping holes in the sales. national banks.
But will it be fair?
While the struggling tourism industry has cheered on the plan, which the EU is expected to vote on later in March, there are fears that uneven vaccine deployments and supplies across Europe will only mean some countries will enjoy more freedoms than others.
Likewise, with some demographics targeted for early vaccination relative to others, some may be forced to stay home, looking with envy at older citizens, many of whom will have received both blows by the end of spring, fly away for their stay in the sun. .
And while the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, sees its new green certificate simply as a document allowing its citizens to cross European borders smoothly, fears have been expressed that they will also become necessary to enter restaurants, bars or other places and events.
Although the new Brexited UK is not part of the program, the success of its vaccination program could lead to special travel agreements with some EU countries that will allow Britons to bypass the need for certification.
EU citizens who are not yet qualified for vaccination – or cannot qualify – could be sidelined from the return to normalcy that most of us are eager to embrace unless we do. subject to frequent testing regimens.
Generational inequity
A harbinger of this can already be seen at sea. Some major cruise lines are announcing summer departures that will only be open to passengers who can prove they have received a full range of vaccines.
Anger, some commentators say, is inevitable.
“Only those over 50 will be vaccinated by this summer, so there may be protests from the younger ones,” Kaye McIntosh, former editor of consumer magazine Health Which? and WI Life, reports CNN Travel. “It adds to the sense of generational inequity created by austerity, housing prices and student loans. I wouldn’t blame Gen Z for being angry.”
Norbert Hidi, a 24-year-old student from the Hungarian capital Budapest, is among those who expect to go nowhere.
“To put it bluntly, it’s not fair,” Hidi told CNN Travel. “Most of us will not have been vaccinated until the summer, which means we cannot travel or go to bars or restaurants. The older generation was vaccinated first because they are the most at risk, but that shouldn’t have them more rights because of it. “
Brian Young, managing director of UK-headquartered G Adventures, a travel agency that offers a range of options including tours for 18-30 year olds, is confident vaccine passports will help boost tourism around the world, although some will miss this year.
“With international travel almost fully entrenched for a year now, it is essential that governments work together to find a one-size-fits-all solution to open borders and allow vacationers to resume flying,” Young told CNN Travel.
“The announcement of the vaccine has seen a resurgence of confidence among those over 50 years old and, while the vaccine passport proposals would be a good solution as proof for those who received the vaccine, it leaves a large part of the travelers, who do not have not taken or have not yet received the vaccine, not covered. “
Third wave
Denmark will become the first nation in the world to deploy a ‘coronavirus passport’ for overseas travel later this month. The idea of immunity passports has been debated in European countries since the start of the pandemic. But critics warn that such passports could be discriminatory and affect people’s right to keep their medical data private. CNN’s Nina Dos Santos reports.
Young says the EU’s decision to allow unvaccinated people to qualify for health passports with a negative test for antigens will help, but could still be a barrier for some to travel.
“Deploying cheaper testing options is also essential if the cost is to lie on the consumer,” he says. “The current cost of PCR testing will deter some travelers, especially if they have to take multiple tests while traveling.”
If approved as planned, the EU digital green certificate will be valid in all EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It will use a QR code with a digital signature to protect against tampering. It will be issued by hospitals, testing centers or health authorities, but the data should be verifiable across the EU via a digital gateway.
The EU says certificates will be issued for approved vaccines. People vaccinated before the certificate became available, or outside the EU, should still be eligible. It is hoped that the certificates will also be valid in countries outside the EU.
In Hungary, where the vaccination rate is above the EU average, officials believe the Commission’s time would be better spent buying vaccines for the entire bloc.
“We regard the certificate debate as a bogus debate because from Brussels nobody is waiting for certificates; from Brussels we are waiting for vaccines,” said Gergely Gulyás, the minister at the head of the Hungarian prime minister’s office, on Thursday. “It would be desirable for Brussels to orient its activity towards this area.”
Transparent measures
The certification plan will need the support of the 27 member states if it is to be adopted next week and introduced in June. Amid concerns from countries like Belgium and Germany that this could lead to discrimination, EU leaders have sought to build confidence.
“We are proposing a common European approach that will lead us on the path to our goal of reopening the EU in a safe, sustainable and predictable way,” said Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety this week.
“The situation with the virus in Europe is still very difficult and confidence in the decisions taken is crucial. It is only through a common approach that we can safely return to full free movement in the EU, on the basis of transparent measures and full mutual trust. “
The World Health Organization, which has also expressed serious concerns about the risk of vaccination passports creating a two-tier society, this week offered its own ‘smart digital certificate’, which it was concerned to insist as not being an authorization to travel.
“It is something different from a passport,” WHO director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Thursday. “We are not encouraging at this point that getting the vaccine is the determining factor whether you can travel abroad or not. It should not be a requirement.”
He said there were ethical, practical and scientific reasons for this.
“There is a global vaccine shortage,” he said. “So that would increase inequality, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that vulnerable people have been disproportionately hit.”
He said the lack of clarity on the duration of immunity meant certification of vaccination did not guarantee fitness for travel, as did uncertainties over whether the inoculated could transmit the virus.
These concerns have not stopped some countries from moving forward with their own certification and passport programs.
Winners and losers
Israel’s digital “green pass” vaccination certificate is used to reopen venues and events.
ACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, some airlines are adopting certification to ensure passengers are virus-free. Australian carrier Qantas has started testing the CommonPass system that will be needed for overseas travel when the Australian border reopens.
Other airlines are subscribing to a digital pass created by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, which will allow passengers to download a negative Covid test certification to allow smoother passage through airports.
Amid this confusing maze of digital paperwork, it is possible that the power of the European Union will help impose some uniformity and clarity on how global borders can be opened in the near future.
But as health expert McIntosh added, there are likely to be winners and losers, and there are no guarantees, especially not in the long term.
“The right to be free from fatal disease trumps the rights of unvaccinated people,” she said. “Maybe that will change if the vaccination ultimately means Covid-19 becomes something more ordinary, like the seasonal flu – although it still kills thousands of people every year.
“But no vaccine is 100% effective, so even people who received the vaccine are still at risk.”
CNN’s James Frater, Sarah Dean and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this story
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