The European Parliament and the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council held the first inter-institutional negotiation meeting (trilogue) on the draft ‘digital green certificate’ late on Monday 3 May and will have another trilogue meeting on 11 May, which the Commission already hopes will be the last, a source said on Tuesday 4 May.
Technical meetings will also be held at the end of the week. Unsurprisingly, the EU Council and the European Parliament are at odds on a number of issues and the first trilogue was an opportunity to reiterate their respective mandates (see EUROPE 12709/1, EUROPE 12698/3). The European Parliament would like to see free PCR tests that could still be required from people with this certificate. This is an issue that will not be resolved favourably by the European Parliament as the EU Council, supported by the Commission, has stressed that the reimbursement of tests is a national competence and that the European level is not the relevant level to deal with this issue.
On the tests themselves and other measures restricting free movement, the European Parliament reiterated its wish to see all such measures lifted for those with the certificate, which some Member States reject. The EU Council wants to keep its mandate to reaffirm the competence of Member States on the health measures they impose on arrival on their territory.
Other issues to be resolved are the types of vaccines covered by the certificates, as the European Parliament wishes to stick to those of the European Medicines Agency. The EU Council opted for a more inclusive formula, taking into account the situation of countries already vaccinating with Sputnik V, even though the Russian vaccine is not yet on the World Health Organization’s emergency list. A compromise will still have to be found on the certificates for persons having recovered from Covid-19, and the need for antibody tests to prove it. This is also a point of debate among Member States.
The Commission generally welcomed this first meeting and would like to see a breakthrough on 11 May, “but it’s still very early days”, says a source, who anticipates an agreement a little later. “But it should be wrapped up by the end of the month, in the worst case, and voted in plenary in June”, the source says.
The hardest part may come afterwards, with Member States having varying degrees of interest in this tool, which is much in demand in the South, but regarding which the North has more reservations.
Next week, some 20 Member States will in any case start a pilot project to test the technical aspects and interoperability of this ‘digital green certificate’, which could also change its name in the meantime. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)