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  • Green Pass, to travel to Europe: digital EU Covid certificates issued from 1 June

  • Green pass, what is the European digital certificate and how it works to return to travel

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June 9, 2021European Parliament makes its way to the EU digital covid certificate. MEPs completed legislative work on the document to facilitate travel within the Union and contribute to economic recovery. The text will now have to be formally adopted by the council and published in the Official Gazette, for entry into force and immediate application from 1 July 2021. The Plenary approved it with 546 votes in favor, 93 against and 51 abstentions (citizens of the 'EU) and with 553 in favor, 91 against and 46 abstentions (citizens of third countries resident in the EU). 



The certificate will be issued free of charge by the national authorities and will be available in digital or paper format with a QR code. The document will attest that a person has been vaccinated against the coronavirus or had a recent test with negative results or that they have recovered from the infection. In practice, these are three distinct certificates. A common EU framework will make certificates compatible and verifiable across the European Union, as well as preventing fraud and falsification. The system will apply from 1 July 2021 and will remain in effect for 12 months.



The certificate will not constitute a prerequisite for free movement and will not be considered a travel document. During the negotiations between the institutions, MEPs obtained an agreement stipulating that EU states will not be able to impose further travel restrictions on certificate holders - such as quarantine, self-isolation or testing - "unless they are necessary and proportionate to safeguard public health ". Scientific evidence will have to be taken into account, "including epidemiological data published by the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)".



Measures should be notified, if possible, 48 hours in advance to the other Member States and the Commission, while the public should be given 24 hours' notice. At the request of the Parliament, the Commission has committed to mobilize € 100 million from the Emergency Support Facility to allow Member States to purchase tests for the issuance of EU Covid digital test certificates.



All EU countries must accept vaccination certificates issued in other Member States for vaccines authorized by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). It will be up to the Member States to decide whether to also accept certificates for vaccines authorized under national procedures or for vaccines listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for emergency use. The text will now have to be formally adopted by the Council and published in the Official Journal, for entry into force and immediate application from 1 July 2021.



More than a million Europeans have already received the first covid digital certificates. The documents that should facilitate travel in the summer during the pandemic therefore begin to make their way in the old continent while the countries in which the system is already active for their mutual recognition rise to nine. The European Commission announced the acceleration almost three weeks earlier than the set date of 1 July, on the same day that the European Parliament gave its green light to the passes.



Spain and Lithuania have officially made the EU platform operational by starting to distribute certificates attesting to vaccination, a negative result for a swab or recovery from the virus. So after Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland, there are nine member states in which the system is already active.



"The regulation" on digital covid certificates "underlines the importance of universal and accessible tests for all citizens, especially for people who cross borders on a daily basis. And to support these efforts, the European Commission has pledged to mobilize € 100 million for the tests necessary to issue the certificate ", the European Commissioner for Justice Diddier Reynders recalled during the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg. "An important debate has begun in the member states on the price of the tests and I am sure there will be new developments in the coming weeks on the accessibility of the tests," he added.



With a Green pass, the holders of certificates will therefore be able to avoid quarantines in the country of destination or arrival. But there will be some exceptions. Indeed, Member States will be able to continue to retain the possibility of imposing further restrictive measures, for example in the event of the appearance of a variant. However, these measures will have to be "necessary and proportionate to protect public health", underlined Brussels.



"In just two months, the European Parliament has made a difference, protecting the rights of citizens, defending circulation and privacy, providing legal certainty and preventing discrimination", underlined the reactor of the provision Al Pe Juan Fernando Loez Aguilar, MEP of the S&D group and President of the Commission for Civil Liberties, specifying that the goal is "to restore Schengen in a fully functional manner". After the approval of the Eurochamber, the certificate is expected on Friday at the meeting of the ambassadors of the 27 countries for a final formal passage and then definitively enters into force on July 1st.