A passenger runs a suitcase through a deserted arrivals hall at Madrid’s Madrid Barajas Airport.
Photographer: Paul Hanna / Bloomberg
Photographer: Paul Hanna / Bloomberg
A proposal to grant special privileges to those who have been vaccinated is gaining more and more attention in Europe, ahead of the harsh appeal of leaders in the region, as an increase in coronavirus infections diminishes the hope of a speedy exit from economic bottlenecks.
During a video conference on January 21, European Union leaders will discuss the introduction of a “vaccination certificate” that would allow holders to travel freely, said several diplomats familiar with the preparations for the virtual meeting. The proposal enjoys growing support, an EU official said, while another diplomat warned that there were pushes from other governments and that any restriction on freedom of movement for these reasons could be illegal.
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The proposal to introduce such a certificate came to light after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis formally requested it with a letter to the head European Commission Ursula von der Leyen earlier this week. Given that inoculation campaigns are running at a snail’s pace, the decision to extend EU-wide privileges for vaccines that are not yet available to everyone in the bloc, due to limited supply, may not come imminently.
However, countries desperate to at least partially restore travel could go it alone, as border control is a national competence and EU coordination, although sought, is not mandatory. The Commission, the EU’s executive arm in Brussels, said it was deliberating with the bloc’s national capitals on the idea of vaccination certificates as part of efforts to keep internal borders open.
New proposal
“We are in active discussions with Member States on the recognition of vaccination certificates, just as we are working on the recognition of tests,” Stefan De Keersmaecker, a spokesman for the Committee on Transport and Health, said on Thursday. “This is an important issue for free movement in the EU.”
The EU official said leaders were likely to ask the Commission to come up with a proposal for a vaccination certificate during next week’s call. Leaders will also call on the executive to take action to speed up vaccinations and increase production capacity.
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Suppliers have begun to do solaunch applications that can safely store health information, such as test results, vaccination status, or proof that they had Covid-19 and be used by airlines to speed up transit based on country-varying policies.
Calls come as the EU lags behind the US, Britain and countries such as Israel and the United Arab Emirates in vaccinating its population. Delays mean that blockages will last longer, delaying the recovery of the block from the steepest recession in living memory.
“We should explore all possible ways to encourage private companies to increase vaccine production and deliveries to Member States,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a January 13 letter to von der Leyen. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, in a letter dated 11 January to the chairman of the commission, said: “There is an urgent need to increase the production capacity of the various vaccines and, at the same time, speed up transport to the Member States”.
– With the assistance of Paul Tugwell, Sotiris Nikas, Christopher Jasper, Siddharth Vikram Philip and Charlotte Ryan