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The European vaccination certificate, closer and closer
The European Union has begun to prepare the draft of the “European Vaccination Certificate” to be put to a vote on March 17, which will allow us to travel even to countries with sanitary restrictions.
This digital certificate will include the personal information with the vaccination certificates, COVID-19 test, or the presence of antibodies of each passenger.
This project represents an important step in the reactivation of tourist trips, business trips, and therefore of the economy in all countries, especially in Spain.
The first objective is to restore mobility between countries, with Covid-free movements and more agile controls. However, a complete solution is being discussed, to even avoid discriminatory situations and ensure the protection of personal data.
“This system will be a complement that will help international trips to return to their previous volumes, respecting security measures and controlling the spread of the virus”, highlights Santiago Montero, CEO of Aervio.
Southern European countries such as Portugal, Spain and Italy are very much in favor of this certificate, because they see it as a way to gradually recover the tourist visits lost during the pandemic. By contrast, Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands are more cautious.
What must be considered?
The main problem of the disagreement between countries resides in the rights that the passport will grant to people already immunized against those who have not yet been vaccinated. At this point, the differences between the vaccination record, the vaccination passport and the digital certificate of immunity should be highlighted.
Vaccine record: shows the vaccines that a person has received. It seeks to facilitate interoperability between different health systems without affecting data security and user privacy.
Vaccination passport: implies a requirement to travel. Therefore, it makes a distinction between those who do not have it and those who do not, since it allows mobility to one part of society while restricting that of another group.
Digital Immunity Certificate: Combined with identity verification, they prove that your carrier has been vaccinated, tested positive for antibodies, or received negative on a recent test. It has been compared with the international vaccination certificate, known as the Yellow Card and created almost 100 years ago by the WHO to register diseases such as cholera, typhus, measles or yellow fever.
It is clear to both European leaders and the Commission that, whatever the formula adopted, it cannot affect the fundamental rights of privacy and freedom of Europeans. In this sense, it cannot act as an element that coerces Europeans to get the vaccine, since for the moment it is voluntary.
On February 28, 2021, 32 million doses of the vaccine had been given in the European Union, according to data from Our World in Data, the University of Oxford project. This means that 7.36% of the community club population has received at least one injection.
