EC Confirms: Green Certificates to Be Used Only for Travel Within the EU for Now
The European Commission has confirmed that the proposal for digital green certificates that will be used within the European Union will be presented today, while the proposal on travel from third countries will be introduced when the proposal is adopted.
The European Commission is already in touch with the World Health Organization as well as the International Civil Aviation Organisation regarding the accordance of technical details related to travel from third countries, AtoZSerwisPlus.pl reports.
The digital green certificate aims to facilitate the border crossing process between the European Union Member States citizens who have been vaccinated against the COVID-19 pandemic without being subject to additional restrictions such as testing process or quarantine rules.
However, such an announcement to implement digital green certificates has caused polemics between several countries, including Serbia.
Serbia has raised its concerns due to the potential possibility that the certificate would only include vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency, which does not cover the Russian Sputnik V vaccine or any other vaccine from Chinese manufacturers that have been used mainly in the country.
France, Germany are among the countries that do not believe that the vaccination passport would bring new facilities for vaccinated travellers.
On Wednesday, it will be revealed if this proposal will be adopted for travel between European Union Member States. On the other hand, the decision to travel from other countries worldwide will be known later.
However, the European Union has emphasized that the proposal’s primary purpose is to facilitate, not halt, the movement within the European Union countries.
Even though the digital green certificate seeks to make the border crossing process easier between the European Union Member States, it would not be beneficial as currently non-essential travel to European Union countries is banned due to the Coronavirus pandemic situation.
The current travel ban imposed by many European countries has been introduced as a preventive measure in order to stop the further transmission of the virus. At present, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are exempted from the travel ban for non-essential purposes to European countries, as these states recently have low rates of COVD-19 infection.
In March last year, the European Union Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, announced that the Commission plans to launch a green digital passport for all persons who have been vaccinated against the virus to help recover travel and tourism, among other industries.
Soon after, in April, an European Union official confirmed for AtoZSerwisPlus.pl that once vaccines against COVID-19 start to roll out in the European countries, it would become mandatory for travellers to obtain a vaccine passport in order to travel to any Schengen country.
The EU official also stressed that the testing process would be another requirement for all persons who seek to travel abroad.
Up to this point, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, Iceland and some other European countries have welcomed such initiatives that would make the travelling process easier.