Posted on Jan 28, 2021, 7:49 PM
The heads of state and government of the 27 had promised to work on it quickly during their last videoconference on the fight against the pandemic, on January 21. It’s done: the EU member states have agreed on a series of principles aimed at harmonizing the vaccination certificates against Covid-19, the European Commission announced Thursday, which is piloting the project. According to her, eleven member states are already issuing such certificates and at least seven are preparing to launch them.
For medical purposes …
This is a first step towards a European vaccine passport, which will generally take a digital form but can also be in paper format (like the WHO yellow booklet). The device is not compulsory, the adopted “guidelines” representing only recommendations in a field which remains sovereign. They lay the foundations for interoperability of certificates and specify that they are intended “primarily” to constitute standardized proof of vaccination “for medical purposes”. For example to ensure the follow-up and the good treatment of people who would receive a first dose in one State then the second in another.
…and maybe more
However, the document clearly specifies that their use for “other reasons” may be decided later by the member states. Some countries dependent on tourism, Greece in the lead, want these certificates to allow their holder to travel across the continent. Other member states, such as France and the Netherlands, are reluctant, deeming the issue very premature as long as a large part of Europeans are not vaccinated. The guidelines postpone discussions on a possible framework for new uses of the vaccination certificate until later. They specify, however, that it will then be necessary “not to discriminate against people for whom vaccination is not possible”.
Tool of the future
“We need a common approach to vaccination certificates”, underlined the European Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides. She wants “Continue to cooperate with the WHO in order to extend this important tool for citizens at the global level during the pandemic, but also once we have conquered it”. An extended and long-lasting vaccination passport could in fact constitute a precious tool for the Europe of Health that the European Commission is trying to encourage to build.
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