EU Reveals Plans for Digital Vaccine Certificates in a Bid to Safely Restore Travel
The President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has unfolded Commission’s plans to create a digital green pass for those who are COVID-19 free in a bid to restore travel for business and tourism purposes.
In a tweet posted in her official Twitter account, President von der Leyen announced the decision to come up with such a solution for the restoration of travel within Europe by giving further information on how this green passes, which in essence will be similar to vaccine certificates already launched by several EU countries.
“We’ll present this month a legislative proposal for a Digital Green Pass,” the President tweeted, further explaining what the pass intends to provide, AtoZSerwisPlus.pl reports.
According to her, a Digital Green Pass would include information on whether its holder has been vaccinated, and if not, the results of COVID-19 tests that the traveler has taken before his trip/upon arrival to his/her destination country.
In addition, President von der Leyen also noted that the document would include information if the person has previously recovered from COVID-19 or not.
“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,” she also said.
While in her tweets, von der Leyen did not give any hints when the certificate would be launched, previously, on Thursday, February 25, while speaking at a press conference in Brussels, said that the document could be ready in three months.
During the conference, she pointed out that at least three months would be needed in order for the technical development of an interoperable system on the European level.
“There is lots of work to do by the Commission on the European level and lots of work to do technically for the member states on the national level,” von der Leyen explained.
Through her recent tweets, she also touched on the issue of privacy and data protection, for which many have expressed their concerns ever since the idea of a common vaccination certificate in Europe surfaced.
“It will respect data protection, security & privacy,” she wrote.
However, many Twitter users were unhappy with the announcement, which they did not hesitate to show.
“You are now opening for ad hoc discrimination based on vaccines that apparently “someone” did not buy in adequate numbers. No pass? No entry in the workplace, bars, restaurants, cafes, gyms, school, no renewal of driver license. Healthy, but as good as dead,” a Twitter user named Trond Johannessen commented.
Another commenter under the handler #fjordanhope asked the President why the EU was proposing mandatory vaccine/passports when, according to him, the Council of Europe and WHO explicitly said this shouldn’t happen.
“Why would we need digital/vaccine passports for an illness that’s mild, if anything at all, for the vast majority of the world? There’s zero need for passports!” the commenter said.
EU Commission’s plans to launch a COVID-19 certificate scheme for those vaccinated against COVID-19 comes after many EU countries have either started doing so or revealed similar plans, Denmark, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Estonia, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Spain, and Sweden.
The possibility of such a requirement to become mandatory for travelers throughout the European Union and Schengen Area countries had been warned by AtoZSerwisPlus.pl in April last year after an EU official told the same that once the vaccines start to roll out in the European countries, they will soon become mandatory.
The same official had also confirmed that COVID-19 tests would become a requirement to enter the EU countries, which had soon turned out to be true.