On Tuesday 23 November, the EU’s European Affairs Ministers discussed the situation of Covid-19 in the Member States in the context of the resurgence of the pandemic and called for additional measures to contain it.
“We need to fight vaccine hesitancy and it is important to provide the booster dose”, summarised Slovenian State Secretary Gazper Dovzan, adding that Member States must also fight disinformation about vaccines and their effectiveness. “It has been widely recognised that the third dose” can be beneficial, the Slovenian added, making numerous references to Israel in the debate.
“Eleven Member States” are lagging behind on vaccination and “we are ready to help them, to give them vaccines”, he also commented.
The ministers also referred to “the measures needed to protect the internal market” and free movement and supported the Commission’s plan to revise its recommendation on non-essential travel within the EU.
The EU Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, confirmed that the Commission was working on this issue, including a “technical solution to take into account the third dose of the vaccine in the EU Covid digital certificates”.
He also announced a revision of the recommendation on non-essential travel to the EU (third country list), which is regularly updated by the EU27. This revision will also take into account the numerous equivalence decisions issued for certificates issued by third countries.
But the Commissioner could not confirm a date for these presentations, as the Commission is still targeting a presentation this week.
Many ministers on Tuesday called for coordination in terms of the length of vaccination certificates (the regulation only allows for 12 months), but also in terms of booster doses, which some countries are starting to impose on all or part of their population, a source said.
On his arrival in Brussels, Luxembourg’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Jean Asselborn, said it was “essential that the 27 EU Member States agree on a common standard”, as his country normally receives some 200,000 workers a day from neighbouring countries.
“We cannot have different systems in Luxembourg and Greece, or in Germany or France. This would be against the interests of European citizens”, he said.
The issue will be on the agenda of EU leaders on 16-17 December.
Plenary debate
MEPs also debated the health situation in the EU on 22 November in Strasbourg in the presence of the Commissioner for Health, Stella Kyriakides.
Several MEPs called for Member States to coordinate Covid certificates, while others said they should be abolished as they discriminate against the non-vaccinated. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)