BRUSSELS: EU leaders on Tuesday welcomed the introduction of a bloc-wide COVID-19 pass that they hope will unlock a tourist surge this summer.
The 27 member states want the EU Digital Covid Certificate, to be launched Jul 1, to turn the page on coronavirus restrictions that have crimped Europeans’ cherished freedom of movement.
Coupled with a separate plan to let in fully vaccinated travelers from nations outside the EU, to be defined by the middle of June, Europe believes its vital tourist industry could claw back some of the losses racked up since the start of the pandemic.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen informed a media conference after the summit that more than 300 million COVID-19 vaccine doses will have been delivered by the end of this week, rising to 400 million next month.
“If we continue like this, we have confidence that we will be able to safely reopen our societies,” she mentioned, adding the EU was on track to meet its goal of fully inoculating 70 percent of adults by late July.
“Progressively, we should return to the ability to move freely throughout the European Union,” European Council President Charles Michel mentioned.
EU countries and the European Parliament struck an agreement last week on the legislation to come into force in mid-June for the COVID-19 certificate. Von der Leyen mentioned all the technological infrastructure would be ready by Jun 1.
The leaders of Greece, Spain, and Croatia, whose economies strongly rely on tourist spending, were particularly effusive about the common doc.
They all had wiped-out summer seasons last yr, but are already starting to welcome back overseas travelers, ignoring Brussels’ plea to coordinate at an EU level.
QR CODE VERIFICATION
Luxembourg’s prime minister, Xavier Bettel, pointed out that a scannable QR code on the certificates will stymie the “hugely copied” PDF files of test results or vaccinations that some individuals were using to cross borders.
The EU’s COVID-19 certificate will show the bearer’s vaccination status, or whether they have immunity from a COVID-19 infection they’ve recovered from or the result of a COVID-19 test.
Conscious that the EU has procured up to 4.4 billion vaccine doses over the next two years – far more than it needs for its population of 450 million – leaders have rallied to a pledge made at a G20 summit in Rome last Friday to share 100 million doses to nations in need by the end of this yr.
Denmark and Sweden each promised three million doses from their stocks at the summit. Germany, Italy, and France had already pledged higher amounts.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel mentioned she also pushed leaders to agree on a mechanism to “react quickly and cohesively” if worrying new coronavirus variants popped up.
The Brussels gathering of EU leaders on Tuesday also looked at ways to share out the burden on battling climate change, to meet the target of cutting emissions by 55 percent over the rest of this decade.
Von der Leyen’s commission has been tasked with mapping out the next steps – including potentially unpopular ones such as slapping carbon taxes on cars and buildings.
The first day of the summit on Monday was overshadowed by Belarus, which sits just outside the EU’s eastern borders, forcing down a Ryanair passenger plane the day before to arrest an opposition journalist and his companion who were on board.
EU leaders unanimously blasted the action and moved to cut Belarus out of European airspace as part of a package of sanctions that will be developed further.
