The European Commission has presented a proposal today to create a Digital Green Certificate, which will certify that a person has either been vaccinated against COVID-19, received a negative test result, or has recovered from COVID-19. The move is designed to facilitate the safe free movement of citizens within the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The proposal (click here to view) is for these certificates to be in digital and/or paper format that will be issued by national authorities in the EU area, such as hospitals, test centres, and/or health authorities.
The digital version can be stored on a mobile device but a paper version can be requested. Both will have a QR code that contains essential information, as well as a digital seal to make sure the certificate is authentic. The European Commission plans to build a gateway through which it can verify all certificate signatures across the EU. The commission has stated that the personal data encoded in the certificate does not pass through the gateway, as it is not necessary to verify the digital signature. The Commission states that it will also help Member States to develop a software that authorities can use to check the QR codes.
The Digital Green Certificate will be accepted in all EU Member States. When travelling, every EU citizen or third-country national legally staying or residing in the EU, who holds a Digital Green Certificate, should be exempted from free movement restrictions in the same way as citizens from the visited Member State.
If a Member State continues to require holders of a Digital Green Certificate to quarantine or test, it must notify the Commission and all other Member States and justify this decision, says the new proposal.
The Commission expects the Digital Green Certificate to facilitate free movement inside the EU but adds that it “will not be a pre-condition to free movement, which is a fundamental right in the EU”. The Digital Green Certificate can also prove the results of testing, which is often required under applicable public health restrictions.
In response to questions on which vaccines will be recognised under this certificate, the Commission stresses that Member States “will have to accept vaccination certificates for vaccines which received EU marketing authorisation” adding that “Member States may decide to extend this also to EU travellers that received another vaccine”.
The Commission is working with the World Health Organization to ensure that certificates issued in the EU can be recognised elsewhere in the world as well. The Commission says that it is also in contact with ICAO.
Commenting on the proposals, industry associations Airlines for Europe (A4E), ACI EUROPE (Airports Council International), ASD (Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe), CANSO, European Regions Airline Association (ERA), and International Air Transport Association (IATA) view these certificates as a “key tool to facilitate a safe and efficient resumption of travel and tourism in Europe”. They have collectively called on the EU Council and the European Parliament to “urgently approve the Commission proposal, and for all EU States to immediately begin preparations for their implementation”.
The associations are particularly urging EU governments to ensure the certificates are operational in time for the peak summer travel months – “with vaccination certificates, in particular, enabling the elimination of all restrictions to travel whilst recognising that vaccination should not be mandatory in order to travel”.
But even if the COVID-19 situation permits the restart of travel, the industry warned that a more detailed plan is needed to energise economic recovery and restore freedom of movement as soon as governments are able to re-open their borders.
“In stark contrast to the restart roadmap set out by the UK, EU work has yet to be initiated on this – leaving hundreds of thousands of travel and tourism businesses and their employees across Europe in the dark as to their prospects for a restart and related planning. It is also preventing Europeans from planning longed-for family reunions, business trips or holidays, which will be crucial in helping to restore Europe’s economies”, the organisations state in a release.
Reiterating their call for an EU Task Force for the Restoration of the Free Movement of People, the associations urged the European Institutions to immediately begin work on this roadmap, which should follow a risk-based and data-driven approach, taking into account: the acceleration of the vaccine roll-out across the EU over the coming months; an ambitious and coordinated testing strategy; the evolution of the epidemiological situation; existing statistical modelling on the very limited impact of travel on COVID-19 incidence rates; and the results of COVID-19 tested flight pilots.
A planning roadmap is essential, the associations say, because a restart of air travel is “complex”.
“The industry is operating at massively reduced capacity, with hundreds of thousands of employees laid off or on salary support. A successful restart will include bringing aircraft and terminals back into service, and marketing and ticketed services brought back online.”
Bearing in mind these facts, say the associations, the need for urgent coordinated and forward-looking planning at EU level is self-evident. The ICAO Council’s recent approval of requirements for globally accepted COVID-19 test certificates, including the technology framework for secure digital versions and the future incorporation of vaccination certificates now provides a global framework for further action.
The leaders of the associations said: “We welcome the European Commission’s adoption of the proposal for a Digital Green Certificate. The EC has our full support, and we call on the European Parliament and Council to work on its swift adoption via an emergency procedure. We need a clear path out of this crippling situation, and appeal once again to the EU Member States to implement common solutions and plan ahead in a fully co-ordinated and aligned way. We repeat: a safe restart of air travel is possible, and we can save both lives and livelihoods – but we need the EU to lead from the front. States must now do their part by acting in a co-ordinated manner, to avert yet another patchwork solution of fragmented agreements borne out of frustration and necessity.”