It was a rare success of European coordination in the corona crisis: the corona certificate that restarted the free movement of citizens this summer. But less than half a year after the certificate went into effect, new divisions threaten to undermine it again — over discussions about validity, boosters and vaccine obligations. On Monday, European Commissioner Stella Kyriakides (Health) promised to come up with new ‘guidelines’ quickly, but fears of a new patchwork of rules are growing.
At the beginning of this summer, EU member states agreed on a single certificate that shows whether an EU citizen has been vaccinated, cured or recently had a negative test result. Initially mainly to get free travel going again and to make holiday traffic more flexible. But a growing number of countries also used a corona pass within their own borders, and so did the use of the EU certificate.
That’s why it’s starting to rub off as the domestic requirements imposed by EU countries become increasingly strict. For example in Austria, where the one dose of Janssen vaccine that was sufficient for the European certificate must soon be supplemented with a booster to gain access to the ski lift, for example. Or in France, where 65-year-olds must have had a third shot from December 15 to get their ‘pass sanitary‘ to keep.
Limited validity vaccine pass
So far, no EU country has announced new travel restrictions for holders of the ‘traditional’ certificate. But Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on the European Commission last week to link the European certificate to a validity of a maximum of six months after the last vaccine. Italy is also considering limiting the validity of the vaccine pass to nine months. And when more and more countries make boosters mandatory for a pass for their own population, the question arises: should citizens from outside be allowed in without a third shot?
As a result, the discussion about mandatory vaccines will inevitably affect European agreements. Austria has already decided to do so, but there are also voices in Germany, Belgium and Italy. Will Europeans still be welcome without there?
Also read this report from Austria: Skeptical Austrians also have to believe in the vaccine
On the other side are countries such as Bulgaria and Romania, where only 29 and 43 percent of adults, respectively, are fully vaccinated. While the number of first and second injections there is still growing only minimally, they fear that a discussion about ‘the third’ and obligations will not help the already low enthusiasm.
Rising Tensions
It illustrates how difficult it remains to bring national health policy in line with international agreements more than a year and a half after the start of the pandemic in the EU. In Brussels, the European Commission is hurrying this week to come up with a proposal for more coordination. But already there seems to be a déjà vu from the countless previous attempts to harmonize European travel policy. Ultimately, EU countries go beyond their own borders and vaccine policy, and they do not accept too much interference.
Tensions will continue to increase in this way, especially now that a new corona wave is hitting almost all EU member states hard. On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that Europe has once again become the epicenter of the pandemic. The WHO predicts that more than 2 million Europeans will have died by March.
Also read: 1G, 2G, 3G: how does the corona pass work best?
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