EU vaccine certificates could be ready to use within three months, according to the European Commission President.
Ursula von der Leyen was speaking at a press conference in Brussels Thursday, after a virtual meeting of the continent’s leaders, where she said that a document saying whether residents have been inoculated or not could be put to use quickly.
“The time-frame, the three months is regarding the technical development, so we do want at least three months for the technical development of an interoperable system on the European level. There is lots of work to do by the Commission on the European level and lots of work to do technically for the member states on the national level,” von der Leyen explained.
The certificates will be for those who have received their jab, a negative PCR test, or who already have antibodies.
And according to Guntram Wolff, Director of think-tank Bruegel, it should be quite straightforward.
Whereas southern European nations dependent on tourism, like Greece and Spain, support certificates, northern EU nations like Germany have so far been sceptical on whether such a system would work.
EU heads of state and government were meeting to take stock of the epidemiological situation on the continent, where they also agreed to prioritize increasing the production and delivery of vaccines, saying that they will work with the pharmaceutical industry to facilitate the process.
“Our high priority now’s speeding up the manufacturing and supply of vaccines and vaccinations throughout the European Union and it’s why we help the Commission’s efforts to work with industry to identify bottlenecks, assure supply chains and scale-up manufacturing and we want more predictability and transparency to make sure pharmaceutical firms comply with their commitments,” European Council President Charles Michel stated Thursday.
He also stated that the 27-member bloc should continue to invest in vaccine research, in order to combat against any new COVID-19 variants that may arise.
