European Union countries agree on vaccine passports | Bohusläningen

The agreement was reached after lengthy negotiations.

– After a long day, we finally reached an agreement, Spanish member Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar announced when he delivered the message at a press conference.

A parliamentary decision on this issue can be taken in a plenary session in June, and it will take effect on July 1.

“This is an important step towards resuming freedom of movement as safely as possible,” said European Union Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides in a statement. Twitter.

Steps towards a normal situation

The plan is for the “joint” covid-19 certification “to work from July 1, allowing EU citizens to appear easily digitally or on paper if they were recently vaccinated, tested, or ill.

Hans Dahlgren wrote: “It is with pleasure that an agreement has been reached on digital Covid certificates. These certificates will facilitate travel to many European countries and are of course very positive.”

MEP Thomas Toby (man) is also happy with the agreement.

It provides an increased opportunity to travel this summer and restart our economies. And we are taking a step toward normalcy, he says.

Now the technical meetings remain before the details are ready.

Thomas Toby says there have been tough negotiations over whether member states should be allowed to impose restrictions on people traveling with vaccine passports.

– You’d better have a clearer guarantee. For example, there are many who do not want to start a vacation trip through quarantine, for example.

There is no quarantine guarantee

Consequently, member states have the option to impose their own restrictions on travelers with vaccine passports. But:

I promised not to do this unless the infection situation justified it. We have some hope that the Member States will handle this issue properly.

The decision on restrictions must come with a 48-hour notice.

European Union MP Abeer Sahlani (center) is not completely satisfied with the agreement and says that there is an “imminent risk that it will be an office product.”

“Unfortunately, the result was a dilute vaccine passport. It is recognized that we soon regained the basic right to move freely in Europe at the same time, but Sweden and other member states did not want to go as far as is required to secure travel without quarantine this summer.” .

Pays for support money

The alleged vaccination passport should be valid for only twelve months.

In order to have an “affordable and easily accessible test,” the European Commission has pledged to provide “at least” 100 million euros, just over a billion crowns, under the EU’s crisis support tools. The money goes to buy Covid tests.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a press release: “European citizens are looking to travel again and today’s agreement means they will be able to do so safely very soon. The EU digital covid certificate is free, secure and available to all.” .

Patrick Duke / TT