EU Leaders Divided Over Vaccine Passports to Allow European Travel This Summer

Some countries want an EU-wide approach instead of individual nations having their own certificates, while others are concerned such documentation could result in discrimination.

Leaders of the EU’s 27 countries met online on Thursday to start a two-day summit to discuss the pandemic, and while they agreed to work on vaccine certificates, they could not come up with a unified plan.

Greece, where tourism contributes to 25% of its GDP, has been leading the call for an EU-wide vaccine certificate to ensure it can benefit from summer tourism.

Athens is in talks with Britain about using a digital “Green Pass”, which it has already agreed with Israel, that issues certificates for people who have had both of their coronavirus jabs.

Spain, Austria and Bulgaria also support the EU-wide certificate, but Vienna said it would implement its own if the EU cannot agree on anything by spring – and wants to include people who have immunity through having COVID-19 and those who have tested negative.

But German Chancellor Angela Merkel doubted whether vaccine certificates of any kind could work.

“First, it must actually be clearly resolved that vaccinated people are no longer infectious,” she told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“As long as the number of those who have been vaccinated is still so much smaller than the number who are waiting for vaccination, the state should not treat the two groups differently.”

However, she provided some hope to countries pushing for certificates and said technical work on them should be completed by the summer. Read Full Article >