(CNN) – The door to summer is slowly opening up in Europe, and for those looking to stroll there for a holiday amid the ongoing Covid restrictions, the key may soon be within reach.
While borders are likely to remain closed in the coming weeks, the European Union is proposing to deploy a green digital certificate or vaccine passport that will allow those with the necessary arms of approved anti-covert pharmaceuticals. or antibodies for having had the virus, for traveling freely. Negative tests could also be used to classify.
It is a measure eagerly anticipated by major European tourist destinations, including Portugal, Spain and Greece, where the absence of visitors over the past year has left gaps in the balances of national banks.
But will it be fair?
While the besieged tourism industry has been pleased with the plan, which is expected to be voted on by the EU later in March, there are fears that the distribution and supply of irregular vaccines across Europe could mean some countries will enjoy more. freedoms than others.
Similarly, with certain demographics targeting early vaccination over others, some may be forced to stay home, jealously watching older citizens, many of whom will have received both blows before the end of spring, which they face the sun. .
And while the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, envisages its new green certificate simply as a document to allow its citizens to flow smoothly across European borders, concern has also been raised that they will be needed for entry to restaurants, bars or other places and events.
Although the new UK Brexited will not be part of the program, the success of its vaccination program could lead to special travel offers with some EU countries that will allow the British to avoid the need for certification.
Those EU citizens who do not yet qualify for vaccination (or who may not qualify) could be left out of the return to normalcy that most of us are looking forward to adopting if they do not undergo frequent testing regimes.
Generational injustice
An omen of this can already be seen in the sea. Some large cruise companies are announcing summer outings that will only be open to passengers who can prove they have had a full vaccine supplement.
Anger, some commentators say, is inevitable.
“Only people over the age of 50 will be vaccinated this summer, so there may be protests from younger people,” said Kaye McIntosh, former editor of Health Which magazine? and WI Life, explains CNN Travel. “It adds to the sense of generational injustice created by austerity, house prices and student loans. I wouldn’t blame General Z for being angry.”
Norbert Hidi, a 24-year-old student from the Hungarian capital Budapest, is among those hoping to get nowhere.
“To put it bluntly, it’s not fair,” Hidi tells CNN Travel. “Most of us will not have been inoculated in the summer, so we mean we can’t travel or go to bars or restaurants. The older generation has had the vaccines first because they are more at risk, but they shouldn’t. mean they have more rights for it. “
Brian Young, managing director of G Adventures, a UK-based travel company that offers a wide range of options, including visits for 18- to 30-year-olds, is confident vaccine passports will help revive tourism throughout the world, even if some will lose it this year.
“With international travel almost complete for the past year, it’s critical that governments work together to find a uniform solution to open borders and allow tourists to fly again,” Young tells CNN Travel.
“The announcement of the vaccine has experienced an increase in confidence in the more than 50 years and, although vaccine passport proposals would represent a good solution as proof for those who have received it, it leaves a large part of travelers who have not yet taken the vaccine. “
Third wave
Denmark will become the first nation in the world to launch a “coronavirus passport” for foreign travel later this month. The idea of immunity passports has been debated among European countries since the beginning of the pandemic. But critics warn that these passports can be discriminatory and affect people’s right to keep their medical data private. CNN’s Nina Dos Santos reports.
Young says the EU’s decision to allow unvaccinated individuals to meet the requirements to obtain health passports with a negative antigen test will help, but it could still be a barrier for some.
“Deploying cheaper testing options is also essential if the cost is to stay with the consumer,” he says. “The current cost of PCR testing will deter some travelers, especially if they have to have multiple tests done when traveling.”
If approved as planned, the EU digital environmental certificate will be valid in all EU member states, as well as in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It will use a digitally signed QR code to protect itself from counterfeiting. They will be issued by hospitals, testing centers or health authorities, but the data should be verifiable across the EU via a digital gateway.
The EU says certificates will be issued for approved vaccines. People inoculated before the availability of the certificate or outside the EU, should still qualify. Certificates are also expected to be valid in countries outside the EU.
In Hungary, where the vaccination rate is higher than the EU average, officials believe the Commission’s time would be better spent procuring vaccines for the whole block.
“We consider the certificate-related debate to be a false debate because no one expects certificates from Brussels; we expect vaccines from Brussels,” Gergely Gulyás, the minister who heads the prime minister’s office, said on Thursday. Hungary. “It would be desirable for Brussels to shift the focus of its activity to this area.”
Transparent measures
The certificate plan will need the support of all 27 member states to approve it next week and present it in June. Amid concerns from countries such as Belgium and Germany that it could lead to discrimination, EU leaders have tried to build confidence.
“We are proposing an EU community approach that will lead us towards our goal of reopening the EU in a safe, sustainable and predictable way,” food security commissioner Stella Kyriakides said this week.
“The virus situation in Europe remains very difficult and confidence in the decisions taken is crucial. Only through a joint approach can we safely return to full free movement in the EU, based on transparent measures and full mutual trust.”
The World Health Organization, which has also expressed serious concerns about the risk of vaccination passports creating a two-tier society, this week proposed its own “smart digital certificate,” which it insisted was not a travel license.
“This is something different than a passport,” WHO Director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Thursday. “We don’t encourage at this stage that vaccination is the decision of whether you can travel internationally or not. It shouldn’t be a requirement.”
He said there were ethical, practical and scientific reasons for this.
“There is a global shortage of vaccines,” he said. “So that would increase inequalities, and if there’s one thing we learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that vulnerable people were disproportionately affected.”
He said the lack of clarity about the duration of immunity meant that vaccination certification did not guarantee fitness for the trip, as well as uncertainties about whether inoculated people could transmit the virus.
These concerns have not prevented some countries from moving forward with their own certification and passport systems.
Winners and losers
Israel’s “green pass” digital vaccination certificate is being used to allow for the reopening of venues and events.
ACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, some airlines are adopting certification to ensure passengers are virus-free. Australian carrier Qantas has begun testing the CommonPass system that will be required for travel abroad when the Australian border is reopened.
Other airlines are signing up for a digital pass created by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, which will allow passengers to hang a negative Covid test certification to allow a smoother passage through airports.
In the midst of this confusing maze of digital paperwork, it is possible that the strength of the European Union will help impose some uniformity and clarity on how global borders can be opened in the near future.
But, as health expert McIntosh adds, there will likely be winners and losers, and no guarantees, especially not in the long run.
“The right not to be exposed to a deadly disease outweighs the rights of the unvaccinated,” he says. “Maybe that will change if vaccination finally means that Covid-19 becomes something more ordinary, like seasonal flu, even though it still kills thousands of people every year.
“But no vaccine is 100% effective, so even people who have had the sting are still at risk.”
CNN’s James Frater, Sarah Dean and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this story