EU Commission to Propose Law on Vaccine

The European Commission is to propose a law on setting up ‘a green pass’ vaccination certification scheme this month. President Ursula von der Leyen said, with many hoping it could eventually unlock perks like travel.

“We want to set up the technical requirements in the next few months,’’ von der Leyen told lawmakers from Germany’s Christian Democratic bloc in the European Parliament, on Monday.

“To make the digital green pass a success, we need the support of all member states,’’ the EU executive chief said, according to a transcript seen by the dpa news agency.

The European Union is working on a scheme to allow member states to recognise each others’ citizens’ proof of vaccination.

At a summit, earlier focused on COVID-19 strategy, EU leaders set an aim of finishing technical work on the scheme within three months.

One idea for a forgery-proof, uniformly readable document is a QR code that could be carried on paper or on a Smartphone, similar to a train ticket.

For this to work, the national systems of the 27 EU states must be interoperable.

While tourism-minded states want the plan to prelaunch summer travel, some countries, like Germany and France, were reluctant to start tying such proof to benefits, such as travel, meals out or cinema trips.

It remained to be seen whether the green pass would be linked to travel rights.