On Friday 10 December, the national ambassadors of the Member States to the EU will discuss the new recommendations proposed by the European Commission on 25 November regarding the validity period of digital EU Covid certificates for travel within the EU and on new rules for travel to the EU from third countries (see EUROPE 12840/1).
The ambassadors will be asked to discuss, among other things, for how long the 9-month ‘certificates’ will be valid after the second dose of the vaccine. In order to allow Member States to adapt, new rules may also only come into force on 1 February, rather than 10 January 2022 as the Commission had wanted.
At this stage, it is not clear whether the ambassadors have already finalised their position, since some countries feel that the Omicron variant does not provide the impetus to decide in a hurry. On 6 December, a meeting of the IPCR group was able to discuss the Slovenian Presidency’s compromises on these two texts.
Regarding the recommendation on third countries, details were added for children under 6 years of age.
Link to documents: https://bit.ly/3rP9P8x; https://bit.ly/3y8tX6O (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)