A passenger is rolling a suitcase through a deserted arrivals hall at Madrid Barajas Airport in Madrid.
Photographer: Paul Hanna / Bloomberg
Photographer: Paul Hanna / Bloomberg
A proposal to grant special privileges to people who have been vaccinated is gaining momentum in Europe ahead of a cruel call from leaders in the region, as rising coronavirus infections dampen hopes of a speedy exit from the region. blockages that hinder the economy.
During a video conference on January 21, European Union leaders will discuss the introduction of a “vaccination certificate” that will allow holders to travel freely, according to 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 would be setbacks by other governments and that any restrictions on freedom of movement for these reasons could be illegal. legal.
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The proposal to introduce this certificate gained strength after Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis formally requested it with a letter to the head of the The European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, earlier this week. With inoculation campaigns at a spiraling pace, the decision to extend EU-wide privileges for vaccines that are not yet available to all members of the bloc, due to limited supply, may not come from imminent way.
However, countries desperate to at least partially re-establish travel could do so alone, as border control is a national competence and EU coordination, while 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 talks with member states on the recognition of vaccination certificates, in the same way that we are working on the recognition of tests,” Stefan De Keersmaecker, spokesman for the Transport and Health Commission, said on Thursday. “This is an important issue for free movement in the EU.”
The EU official said leaders are likely to ask the commission for a proposed vaccination certificate during next week’s call. Leaders will also call on the executive to take steps to speed up vaccinations and increase production capacity.
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Vendors have started to do thatdeploy applications that can securely store health information, such as test results, vaccination status, or tests of having Covid-19, and used by airlines to speed up traffic according to policies that vary by country.
The calls come as the EU goes after the US, the UK and countries like Israel and the UAE in vaccinating their population. Delays make blockages last longer, delaying the recovery of the block from the strongest recession in living memory.
“We should explore all possible avenues 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 January 11 letter to the commission chairman, said: “It is urgent to increase the production capacity of different vaccines and at the same time speed up shipments to member states.”
– With the assistance of Paul Tugwell, Sotiris Nikas, Christopher Jasper, Siddharth Vikram Philip and Charlotte Ryan