A European health passport is now well on the way. This seemed premature even last January, when the Greek Prime Minister put forward the idea to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has now moved to the forefront of the news. On 1 March, Ursula von der Leyen made it official in a tweet: " This month we will be presenting a legislative proposal for a digital "green pass. Its aim is to provide proof that a person has been vaccinated, or test results for those who have not yet been able to be vaccinated, to find out whether the person has overcome Covid-19 and is immune, all while respecting data protection, security and privacy. "
At the end of last week, the European Council, which brought together the Union's heads of state and government by videoconference, examined the issue with a view to making progress on the technical details. "Indeed, we have discussed this subjectsaid Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference on 25 February. As you know, there are still a number of open questions, political questions. The first, of course, is what these certificates will be used for. "
Fervently pushed for by countries such as Greece and Spain to ensure a better start to the tourist season than last year, their scope still leaves a number of points unresolved, notably for legal and ethical reasons. Germany and France are reluctant to make this a condition of the agreement. sine qua non to travel. " Not all of our populations have yet had access to the vaccine, which, I would remind you, is administered on a voluntary basis, and for the time being is subject to age criteria, such a document does not confer specific rights on those vaccinatedsaid Emmanuel Macron at a press conference on 25 February. Once the vaccination campaigns have been carried out in the European Union, they will simply make it possible to reorganise movements between Member States more fluidly. While the precise use of this tool has yet to be defined, it should facilitate border crossings. And could help save the summer tourist season. "This is already a step forward compared with the often disparate and unilateral restrictions introduced in recent months.
All that remains now is to put this joint medical certification into practice and, above all, to ensure that the health and border control systems speak the same language. " On the Commission's side, we are proposing to coordinate standards and create a gateway linking the various national solutions so that this information is interoperable. This will take time, at least about three months. (...) Member States will have to speed up implementation if we want such a "green certificate" to be in place by this summer." said Ursula von der Leyen, adding that " The good news is that we're not starting from scratch. "
At the end of January, the EU Member States agreed on a minimum set of data required for each certificate, but also on uniform content on the type of vaccine used or on a unique identifier, " as an IBAN code" Ursula von der Leyen emphasised. Standardisation seems key, because in parallel with this work at European level, European countries are each working separately on their own "green passport" solution, similar to what is already being done in Israel.
Denmark has announced that it will be launched within the next three to four months, and Sweden has done the same, with the summer as its horizon. Germany and the UK are also considering the idea, as is France. During his press conference last week, Emmanuel Macron stated that the certificates envisaged at European level "... will be used for the first time in Europe". are to be distinguished from the mechanisms we are in the process of preparing in each of our countries. " To organise the reopening of public places and at the same time ensure the protection of the public and professionals, France is planning to set up a " health pass" announced the President of the Republic.
Based on what is already being done with the Tous Anti-Covid application to track and identify positive people and contact cases, " but more efficient "As Emmanuel Macron points out, this pass should enable people to check in at a public place with " a code, simply and digitally".. " We may be able to include elements of recent negative tests. We could also look at whether you've been vaccinated.said the Head of State.
However, vaccination is not a prerequisite to take advantage of this reopening of public places. " If, at some point in the spring, we manage to reopen these places, we cannot make access to them conditional on vaccination, even though we have not yet opened up vaccination to the youngest among us. "The government is due to meet this week to discuss the idea of this "health pass", which would allow restaurants to reopen and cultural events to resume.
