To travel to Europe next summer, it will probably be necessary to be able to present proof that one is neither contaminating nor likely to be contaminated. A delicate exercise to implement.
- The certificate would incorporate data on vaccination, testing and acquired immunity
- Countries with a strong tourist vocation are the most favorable to this health passport project
The Prime Minister warned: “The 2021 summer holidays may not be completely normal”. Translation, many restrictions will no doubt still be in place due to the health situation. But will we still be able to travel abroad, at least within the European Union? It is with the aim of allowing these trips, whether for leisure or professional purposes, that Europe is considering the establishment of a health passport, modestly called “digital green certificate”, the outlines of which must be revealed shortly. .
Vaccines, tests, acquired immunity
The idea is to build a tool to present “digital proof that a person has been vaccinated, recovered from Covid or received negative test results”. In other words, that it presents guarantees of being neither contagious nor likely to be contaminated. Concretely, it could be a QR code integrating data on vaccination – the only recognized vaccines would then be the 4 products currently or soon available, Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson -, tests or acquired immunity, QR code which could be presented either on a smartphone or on a paper document.
Problem, this sesame to travel to Europe is far from unanimous: as many countries for which tourism is essential are rather favorable to it, as much the idea of having to justify its health situation is debated in other States. Spain or Greece – the latter having already concluded an agreement with Israel – want this health passport to be quickly put in place in order to guarantee their summer season. But reluctance is stronger in France or Germany.
“Making life easier for Europeans”
And other complexities also have to be dealt with: how to guarantee the authenticity of such a document, how to have it recognized by each of the member states and above all how to ensure the security of the data that it will have to integrate. Ethical and technical solutions therefore remain to be invented for the implementation of this tool, which the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyden, has declared that it should “facilitate the lives of Europeans and allow them to move around in safety for work or for tourism”.
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