The Commission indicated in the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee on Thursday 18 November that it would most likely present a new proposal to extend the use of the EU Digital COVID-19 certificate to cover the situations of people vaccinated, tested or recovered from Covid-19.
This proposal could even come “before March 2022”, said the new director general of DG Justice and Consumers, Ana Gallego Torres, when she was invited to give an update on this tool, which came into force on 1 July.
The current EU regulation on Covid certification, adopted in June, provides for a 12-month period of application and the Commission is required to submit a new report on the certificate three months in advance. The EU Covid Certificate should continue to facilitate the free movement of these various categories of people, the Commission representative said, as some Member States are currently tightening the vaccination certificate to people who have received a third dose.
The aim of this tool “was also to allow the non-vaccinated to benefit from freedom of movement”, she stressed, but the national use of the certificate does not fall within the scope of the European regulation.
The Director also confirmed that the Commission would present a revision of the recommendation on preserving freedom of movement in the EU “early next week”.
It will take into account “progress in vaccination” and the use of certificates (600 million certificates have been issued in the EU since July), the Commission’s aim being to avoid further restrictions on travel within the EU.
“A holder of a valid certificate should not, in principle, have any additional restrictions, but at the same time we have to remain vigilant”, she said, given the deteriorating situation. The pandemic “is clearly not over”, she added.
This recommendation, which applies to non-essential travel within the EU (see EUROPE 12730/1), will attempt to maintain coordination between Member States as they use the health certificate in different ways, some reducing the period of validity or making it conditional on certain segments of the population receiving a third dose of vaccine.
Without going into these aspects of vaccine strategy, which are a national responsibility, this revised recommendation will continue to be based on the same colour-coded map system according to incidence rates.
These confirmations received a mixed reception from some MEPs who were critical, like Clare Daly (The Left, Ireland), that the EU Covid certificate had become the equivalent of a compulsory vaccination certificate, which was not in the philosophy of the agreement reached with the EU Council. Some MEPs argued that it had been agreed that the certificate would only be a temporary measure. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)