The majority of the European Parliament’s political groups supported President David Sassoli’s proposal to introduce a Covid-19 certificate or ‘health pass’ to facilitate access to the Parliament’s premises and thus return to near-normal functioning, on Thursday 7 October at the meeting of their Presidents (CoP).
The aim would be to increase the number of face-to-face meetings by requiring the presentation of the ‘health pass’ for staff and MEPs as early as November. All entrances to the Parliament would be open. Two interpreters could share a booth again.
Most of the political group chairs or representatives - Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany), Iraxte García Perez (S&D, Spain), and Ska Keller (Greens/EFA, Germany) - called for some flexibility, especially for committee meetings, in order to take into account cases of quarantine. On behalf of the Renew Europe group, Malik Azmani from the Netherlands called for the ‘health pass’ rule to be applied from October.
Mrs Keller was reportedly less enthusiastic, apparently preferring the strict application of Belgian law, which does not require a ‘health pass’ for access to the workplace. Marco Zanni (Identity and Democracy, Italy) is reported to have said that the certificate cannot be imposed on MEPs because of their right to exercise their mandate freely. Martin Schirdewan (The Left, Germany) was reportedly also cautious, as was Ryszard Legutko (ECR, Poland), who reportedly prefers to maintain the status quo.
The CoP decided to conduct further evaluations and to maintain hybrid sessions until 1 November. The European Parliament has been operating in a hybrid format since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in spring 2020 (see EUROPE 12454/2). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)