Air France planes landed on the tarmac of an airport (illustrative image).

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Mario FOURMY / SIPA

  • The European authorities want to create a health certificate, the "green passport", to facilitate travel within the EU before the summer holidays.

  • It will indicate if a person has been vaccinated, if they have been cured, therefore immune, or if they have received a negative test.

  • A presentation meeting is due to take place this Wednesday at the European Commission.

The future sesame for travel?

The European authorities present, this Wednesday to the European Commission, their draft health certificate, or "green passport", to travel within the European Union this summer.

Cured people, vaccinated travelers, negative test… The future “European health pass” must be put in place before the summer holidays, announced Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton.

In the meantime,

20 Minutes

takes stock of what we already know about this “green passport”.

What will this “green passport” look like?

It will be a QR code, available in electronic or paper form, to respect those who "do not want to put this on their smartphone, and it is their right", said Thierry Breton, this Sunday during of the “Grand Rendez-vous” Europe 1-CNEWS-Les Echos.

Free, this "green passport" will be available in the language of each country, translated into English, and "valid in all countries of the European Union", he detailed.

This precious sesame will make it possible to indicate whether a person has been vaccinated against the coronavirus (with a vaccine approved by the European Medicines Agency), if he has recently been cured of the disease, and therefore immune, or finally if he has received a negative test allowing him to travel in complete safety.

💬 @ThierryBreton on the health pass: "We call it a digital green certificate (...) It must contain precise but simple information: vaccination, cure or negative test. It will be in electronic or paper form" # Europe1 #LeGrandRDV pic .twitter.com / uTRS3LpCKm

- Europe 1 🎧🌍📻 (@ Europe1) March 14, 2021

What is the goal ?

The goal is quite simple: to facilitate travel within the European Union this summer.

“The green digital passport [named thus in reference to the“ greenways ”put in place since March 2020 by the Twenty-Seven for the movement of trucks at the borders] should make life easier for Europeans.

The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the EU or abroad - for work or tourism, ”said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, on March 1 on Twitter.

The Digital Green Pass should facilitate Europeans' lives.



The aim is to gradually enable them to move safely in the European Union or abroad - for work or tourism.

- Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) March 1, 2021

Will it be compulsory?

A priori, no.

This is a tool from the European authorities made available to the 27 Member States.

"It is up to each of them then, assures the Commission, to decide on the rights that it opens - for example that of staying on its soil without having to undergo quarantine for a non-national -", explain our colleagues from

Le Monde

, this Wednesday.

When will it be available?

The European authorities hope to put this health pass in place before the summer holidays.

"We are working to have it done before June," said Thierry Breton, believing that it was "essential that we do everything to preserve the tourist season".

Does it exist in other countries?

Several countries have already adopted a similar process.

In Israel, for example, a health passport already exists.

People who have received both doses of the vaccine can travel and enter the country without any restrictions, but testing negative for Covid-19.

On the Chinese side, the authorities are working on a "health certificate for international travel", a smartphone application gathering the health data of passengers.

And it's not just the countries that are thinking about this device.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which brings together most of the global sector, is considering a digital passport allowing passengers to prove their health status before boarding a plane.

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