Corona pass in European Parliament, despite Dutch resistance: ‘We warned about this’ | Inland

The meeting halls in Brussels and Strasbourg have been inaccessible to people without a corona certificate since September. This evidence shows that someone has been vaccinated, has recently had the virus, or has a negative PCR test result. The leadership of the European Parliament decided on Wednesday to extend the measure to employees and MEPs.

According to the medical service of the European Parliament, the vaccination rate in the institute is between 80 and 85 percent. Now that the infection figures are rising again, it is considered ‘justified’ to make the corona pass mandatory. Anyone who has not had an injection can have themselves checked in their own test centers. Parliament hopes in this way to make it possible again to work in as normal a way as possible.

fire letter

Not all MEPs agree with the decision. In a letter to Italian parliament speaker David Sassoli, politicians from left and right parties express their objections. Among the signatories are Dutchmen Rob Roos and Rob Rooken of JA21.

“As far as we know, the European Parliament would be the first in Europe to implement such a measure,” the MPs wrote. “This would go against a very fundamental principle in a democratic house: never an elected representative who has fulfilled all legal obligations should be denied access to parliament. Under no circumstances should such a limitation be accepted.”

‘Vaccination compulsion’

SGP MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen states that the European Parliament is setting the wrong example: “The European Parliament is a house of democracy and should remain accessible to everyone. This is another step towards vaccination compulsion. This is exactly what we warned about when the corona pass was introduced.”

Very strict rules already apply in the European Parliament. For example, employees are not all allowed to come to the office at the same time, there is a strict mouth cap obligation and everyone’s temperature is measured at the entrance. The rules for remote participation are again much broader than in, for example, the House of Representatives. MEPs can participate digitally in debates and votes.

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