The EU is increasingly confident of having COVID-19 travel certificates for this summer. After a meeting with European affairs ministers, the European Commission has said it is expecting to finish work soon on its digital certificate that could allow citizens to travel more easily this summer in the 27-nation bloc.
The digital certificate would allow those vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 or with negative test results to cross borders where restrictions on movement have weighed heavily on the travel industry for more than a year.
A two-week pilot project to test the technology in a few countries at a time has begun.
EU governments, the European Parliament and the Commission still need to agree on the design of the certificate and decide whether faster, but less accurate, COVID-19 antigen tests can be included.
It is now a race for all sides to work together to complete the legislative, as well as the technical, work as quickly as possible, before summer.
The task is technically complex as for the certificate to work, it has to be on smartphones, it has to be interoperable, and possible to check it.
The European Parliament says no one will be obliged to use the EU certificate and it must not be considered a vaccine passport.
The European Commission is working closely with the USA, and the World Health Organization to allow the certificate to be used on a wider scale.
As the vaccination campaign in the EU is gaining speed with 200 million jabs delivered and COVID-19 infections rates falling, Europe is already starting to reopen.
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