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HEALTH-VIRUS-EU-VACCINES-CERTIFICATE
EU proposes vaccine pass to help save tourism
BRUSSELS, March 17, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – The EU will unveil Wednesday a
proposed European vaccine pass to ease travel, an idea pushed by tourist
hotspots such as Greece that are desperate to save their crippled economies.
The proposal by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, would
create a digital certificate to show at airports and border crossings to
prove that the traveller has received the precious jab.
The idea is to allow inoculated tourists to get around restrictions on non-
essential travel that have spread across Europe, as a second and third wave
of Covid-19 infections brought much intra-EU travel to a standstill.
“We don’t call it a vaccine passport we call it a green digital
certificate,” EU commission spokesman Eric Mamer said Tuesday.
“It is a document that will describe the medical situation of the
individuals who hold this certificate.”
The plan, however, will face stiff resistance from many member states, a
key concern being that those still awaiting vaccinations would be
discriminated against.
– ‘Difficult’ questions –
Europe is trailing the United States and Britain in its vaccination
campaign, with deliveries of doses delayed and some countries worried about
the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
According to the latest count by AFP, only 3.5 percent of the European
population has been fully vaccinated.
The commission’s plan is “very ambitious” with some “very difficult”
questions yet to be resolved, said a senior EU diplomat.
Some member states are worried that the legal path to create the pass,
which would include approval by European Parliament, will take too long, with
the summer holidays just three months away.
The Commission is “working to have it done by June”, Internal Market
Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Sunday.
In addition, Hungary and the Czech Republic will fight to ensure vaccines
not yet approved Europe-wide, such as Russia’s Sputnik V, will be part of the
scheme.
In the commission’s proposal, member states would decide which vaccines to
recognise.
Finally, some will be wary of Brussels using the Covid crisis to grab power
from national governments, with civil liberties under threat.
Health matters in Europe have traditionally remained a national matter.
“Vaccination can’t be the only way to unlock all sorts of freedoms when
there are people who can’t or won’t get vaccinated — often through no fault
of their own,” said Israel Butler of the Civil Liberties Union for Europe.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1702 hrs