EU to Adopt Vaccine Passport

An EU Commissioner has claimed that vaccine passports for the Chinese coronavirus are set to be “recognised” by the European Union in a supposed push to open up travel within the bloc.

The European Union said that while the implementation of vaccine passports is “premature” before enough people on the continent are vaccinated, the bloc has suggested that the system may come in place in the near future.

Margaritis Schinas, the European Commission’s vice-president, said per the Daily Mail that it is “perfectly imaginable that this can open avenues for other use, including facilitating travel”.

“We feel that now this is the time for these vaccine certificates to be recognised across the European Union, and even beyond the European Union,” the Greek politician added.

The EU’s Health Commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, also said that that the bloc is in “active discussion” about how to implement a vaccine passport system.

Spain has become the latest country to back the idea of health passports, with the country’s tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, announcing that Spain will introduce a “vaccination certificate”. The move follows similar pronouncements from Denmark, Iceland, and Greece, according to SchengenVisaInfo.

Maroto said that the Spanish government has a responsibility to not only build a “resistance to the virus but also the recovery and maintenance of Spain’s leadership in terms of tourism competitiveness,” adding that the industry needs “transforming and digitalising” to keep competitive.

A spokesman for the Department of Health in the UK told The Telegraph that the British government is not currently planning on implementing such a measure, as it is unclear whether vaccinations will prevent people from spreading the virus after they have been inoculated.

Though the British government has consistently denied that it has any plans to implement vaccine passports, a government-sponsored trial of such a system is set to be completed by as soon as March.

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