EU Summer Travel Rules

When it comes to the passport of the EU's own vaccine, called “, the digital green certificate”, procedures are continuing, though slowly.

The passport was proposed this spring by the European Commission and Parliament and the European Council, representing the 27 EU member states, agreed to their respective negotiating mandates. The three institutions now must draft the final legislative text.

The first meeting took place on May 3rd, while other meetings are expected to be held in the coming days and weeks.

The idea to open the EU (minute Ireland, but plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland) for citizens of third countries is cooler.

The proposal for easing the restrictions was initially submitted on May 3rd.

Ambassadors of member states are expected to discuss it this week.

The European Commission suggested welcoming the people who have received the latest recommended dose of any of the vaccines that the EU has approved against coronary: AstraZeneca, BioNTech/Pfizer, Johnson&Johnson and Modernna. Under the proposal, the second dose should be taken at least 14 days before arrival.

The Commission also proposed relaxing EU methodology for calculating the countries <x0 safe>”. Currently, those countries are considered safe, which in 14 days report 25 cases of coronarys to 100,000 inhabitants, while proposed that the figure of 25 increase to 100.

Currently, the average bloc is 420 cases and only six countries qualify under the strict regime: Australia, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea, and Thailand.

For the vaccine certificates, the idea is to establish a common regulation across the European Union, which again ensures freedom of travel within the Schengen zone.

But there are still some major outstanding issues.

Parliament, for example, wants free tests for COVID for those who are not vaccinated or unwilling to vaccinated, which member states are not eager to do because of lack of funds as a result of pandemic.

But the biggest controversial issue could result if the Eurodeputs insist that the certificate means that there are no additional restrictions, such as additional tests or potential quarantines from member states.

The governments of many EU member states, out of fear of new coronary variants, believe it must depend on them to decide whether to use the certificate to remove restrictions or not.

The clash can occur because health is an exclusive competence of individual member states, while freedom of movement is the competence of the union.

For the opening of EU external borders, much depends on how many tourists want member states and where.

Some may insist on reciprocity measures, especially when it comes to China, the United States and Britain, and may have other criteria, such as testing and levels of positiveness.

Member states, as in the case of vaccine certificates, can reserve the right to place additional quarantines or tests.

To limit the risk of importing new coronary variants, the European Commission also proposed the so-called “emergency refrain”, which would enable the introduction of rapid travel restrictions for countries where the health situation deteriorates significantly.

The idea is that both proposals are fully functional by the end of June. Technical work for certificates is already under way.

Whether there are legislative blocks between Parliament and the Council or not, the system is set to be technically ready by 1 June.

Certificates, which can be used both in smartphones and in the letter version, will include three ways to prove that you are free to travel to the Schengen area: vaccine, negative test, or test recovery from the Coronavirus plus the necessary data, such as name, birth date, launch site, and the type of vaccine if you have been injectedd.

The idea is that information from the vaccine processes in third countries can be placed on the EU system, something that, according to EU officials, is not technically difficult, even though privacy issues can complicate.

For the European Parliament, only vaccines approved by the European Bars Agency (EMA) should be allowed in the scheme of the vaccine certificate, but member states have insisted that the door be left open for EU countries to allow vaccines in other countries as well. Insistment has been made in an effort to calm Hungary, which uses both Russian Sputnik V and Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

However, the Commission's recommendation for opening borders for citizens of third countries does not have such generosity.

Sputnik V is still in the EMA analysis process. On May 4, EMA has also launched a revision of the Chinese vaccine.

Children in the EU have not yet been vaccinated, so for vaccine certificates, parents just have to use a negative test PCR for their babies.

The same applies to minors not vaccinated outside the EU. But, in this case, member states will probably require additional testing after arrival. / REL