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European Parliament votes in favour of the EU Digital COVID Certificate
On 9 June, a vast majority of the Members of the European Parliament voted in favour of the EU Digital COVID Certificate.
The proposal for such a certificate was introduced by the European Commission last March (see previous briefing here). The proposal went through the fast-track procedure, hence explaining why it could be adopted in such a short amount of time. The text should apply from 1 July 2021 and be in place for 12 months.
The certificate proves that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has a recent negative test result or has recovered from the infection. Thus, there are -in practice- three types of certificate. All of them need to be interoperable and verifiable across the EU. There are also provisions to prevent fraud and forgery of certificates.
The certificate will be issued free of charge in paper or digital format, with a QR code in any case.
All EU Member States will accept the certificate, making travel easier. It is up to each Member State to decide whether it accepts vaccines which have not been authorised by the European Medicines Agency.
Member States cannot impose additional travel restrictions (quarantine, self-isolation, testing etc.) on certificate holders -unless duly justified by epidemiological data.
The adopted proposal also encourages making testing affordable and accessible. It foresees 100 million euros in EU funds for Member States to purchase tests.
Another text concerns certificates for third country nationals.
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