Regulation on EU Vaccine Passports for Travel officially signed
The presidents of the main EU institutions – the Parliament, the Council, and the Commission, met on 14th June at an official signing ceremony that marked the end of the law-making process for the European Union COVID-19 vaccine passports for travel.
During the ceremony, the Presidents David Sassoli and Ursula von der Leyen and the Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, praised Europe for uniting and growing when faced with challenges:
“Our Union showed again that we work best when we work together. The EU Digital COVID Certificate Regulation was agreed between our institutions in the record time of 62 days. While we worked through the legislative process, we also built the technical backbone of the system, the EU gateway, which is live since June 1,” the Presidents said.
The EU Commission first proposal of the document that would help restore the freedom of travel and movement in the EU was earlier in March. Thereafter, it went through the procedures and regulations, before being officially approved and now officially signed.
The gateway through which all certificate signatures can be verified across the EU has been activated from 1 June. The gateway has been tested by more than 20 member states and Iceland before allowing it to go live.
The EU Digital COVID Certificate aims to enable safe and free movement within the EU during the COVID-19 pandemic. All European citizens have the right to travel freely also without a certificate, but the certificate will facilitate travel and exempting holders from restrictions like quarantine.
The certificate will be available to everyone and will:
– Include information such as COVID-19 vaccination, test and recovery;
– Be available in all EU languages and cost-free;
– Be issued either in a digital or paper-based format;
– Provide data security including a digitally signed QR code;
This regulation will become effective from 1 July 2021 for 12 months.
The EU member countries can start issuing the certificates with Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia and Poland already starting issuing the first passports since the beginning of this month. Some countries are still in the technical testing phase but all of the members have access to be connected to the EUDCC gateway.
National authorities, such as test centres or health authorities are in charge of issuing the certificate.
Regarding the data, it will contain necessary key information such as name, date of birth, date of issue, relevant details about vaccine/ test/recovery and a unique identifier. This data remains on the certificate and is not stored or kept when a certificate is verified in another Member State.
Many Europeans who wish to travel this summer will now practise movement freely and more safely and responsibly with the use of the certificates.
