(CNN) – The door to summer is slowly cracking open in Europe, and for those looking to walk through it to take a vacation amid the ongoing Covid restrictions, the key may soon be at hand.
While borders are likely to remain closed in the coming weeks, the European Union is proposing to roll out a digital green certificate or vaccine passport that will allow people with the required amount of or having had antibodies by the virus to travel freely. Negative tests can also be used to qualify.
It is a measure eagerly awaited by Europe’s top tourist destinations, including Portugal, Spain and Greece, where an absence of visitors has left yawning holes in national bank balances over the past year.
But will it be fair?
While the beleaguered tourism industry welcomes the plan, which the EU is expected to vote on later in March, there are fears that a patchy roll-out of vaccinations and supplies across Europe could mean that some countries will enjoy more freedoms than others.
Likewise, with certain demographics targeting early vaccination over others, some may be forced to stay home and watch with envy as older citizens, many of whom will have both received jabs before the end of spring, fly away from their time in the sun. .
And while the EU’s executive body, the European Commission, sees its new green declaration simply as a document to enable its citizens to travel smoothly across European borders, concerns have been expressed that they will also be needed for access to restaurants, bars or other locations and events.
While the new Brexited UK will not be part of the program, the success of the vaccination program could lead to special travel agreements with some EU countries that allow Britons to bypass the need for certification.
The EU citizens who are not yet eligible for vaccination – or are incapable of – could be barred from the return to normalcy that most of us would like to embrace unless they submit to frequent testing regimens.
Generational dishonesty
A harbinger of this can already be seen at sea. Some major cruise lines advertise summer departures that are only open to passengers who can prove they have a full range of vaccines.
Anger, some commentators say, is inevitable.
“Only people over 50 will be vaccinated by this summer, so there could be protests from younger people,” said Kaye McIntosh, former editor of the consumer magazine Health Which? and WI Life, tells CNN Travel. “It adds to the sense of intergenerational dishonesty created by austerity, home prices and student loans. I wouldn’t blame Gen Z for being angry.”
Norbert Hidi, a 24-year-old student from the Hungarian capital of Budapest, is one of those who don’t expect to go anywhere.
“To put it bluntly, it’s not fair,” Hidi told CNN Travel. “Most of us won’t be vaccinated by the summer, so that means we won’t be able to travel or possibly go to bars or restaurants. The older generation has had the vaccines first because they are most at risk, but we shouldn’t mean they have more rights because of it. “
Brian Young, CEO of G Adventures, a UK based tour company offering a range of options, including guided tours for 18-30 year olds, is convinced vaccine passports will help revive tourism around the world, even if some do. years will miss.
“With international travel almost completely on the ground for a year, it is essential that governments work together to find a unified solution to open borders and get vacationers back on the flight,” Young tells CNN Travel.
“The announcement of the vaccine has led to an increase in confidence in the over-50s and while proposals for a vaccine passport would be a good solution as evidence for those who have received the vaccine, a large proportion of travelers who do not need it are left behind vaccine, unsecured. “
Third wave
Denmark will become the first country in the world to roll out a “coronavirus passport” for foreign travel later this month. The idea of immunity passports has been debated in European countries since the beginning of the pandemic. But critics warn that such passports can be discriminatory and undermine people’s right to keep their medical records private. CNN’s Nina Dos Santos reports.
Young says the EU’s decision to qualify unvaccinated individuals for health passports with a negative antigen test will help, but may still be a barrier to travel for some.
“The rollout of cheaper testing options is also essential if the cost is with the consumer,” he says. “The current cost of PCR testing will put some travelers off, especially if they have to undergo multiple tests while traveling.”
If approved as planned, the EU digital green certificate is valid in all EU Member States and in Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. It uses a QR code with a digital signature to protect against counterfeiting. It is issued by hospitals, testing centers or health authorities, but the data must be verifiable across the EU through a digital gateway.
The EU says certificates will be issued for approved vaccines. People vaccinated before the certificate is available, or outside the EU, should still be eligible. It is hoped that the certificates will also be valid in countries outside the EU.
In Hungary, where vaccination coverage is higher than the EU average, officials believe Commission time could be better spent purchasing vaccines for the whole bloc.
“We consider the debate on the certificate to be a bogus debate because no one from Brussels expects certificates; from Brussels we expect vaccines,” said Gergely Gulyás, the minister leading the prime minister of the Hungarian office, Thursday. “It would be desirable if Brussels shifted the focus of its activity to this area.”
Transparent measures
The certificate plan will need the support of all 27 member states when it is adopted next week and implemented in June. Despite concerns from countries like Belgium and Germany that it could lead to discrimination, EU leaders have tried to build confidence.
“We propose a common EU approach that will lead us towards our goal of reopening the EU in a safe, sustainable and predictable way,” said Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety.
“The situation with the virus in Europe is still very challenging and confidence in the decisions taken is crucial. Only through a joint approach can we safely return to full free movement in the EU, based on transparent measures and full mutual trust.”
The World Health Organization, which has also expressed serious concern about the risk of vaccination passports creating a two-tier society, this week proposed its own ‘smart digital certificate’, which it argued with great difficulty was not a travel permit.
“This is different from a passport,” said director Hans Kluge of WHO Europe on Thursday. “We don’t encourage at this stage that getting a vaccination is the determining factor as to whether you can travel internationally or not. It shouldn’t be a requirement.”
He said there were ethical, practical and scientific reasons for this.
“There is a global shortage of vaccines,” he said. “So this would increase inequalities, and if there’s one thing we’ve learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s that the vulnerable people were disproportionately affected.”
He said ambiguity about how long immunity lasts meant vaccination certification was not a guarantee of fitness to travel, as was uncertainty as to whether the inoculated could transmit the virus.
Such concerns have not stopped some countries from continuing with their own certification and passport schemes.
Winners and Losers
Israel’s “green pass” digital vaccination certificate is used to reopen venues and events.
ACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images
Meanwhile, some airlines are applying certification to ensure that passengers are virus-free. Australian airline Qantas has started a trial of the CommonPass system, which will be needed for travel abroad when the border with Australia reopens.
Other airlines sign a digital pass created by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, which allows passengers to upload a negative Covid test certification to enable smoother passage through airports.
Amid this confusing maze of digital paperwork, it is possible that the power of the European Union can help impose some uniformity and clarity on how to open global borders in the near future.
But as health expert McIntosh adds, there are likely to be winners and losers, and there are no guarantees, especially in the long run.
“The right not to be exposed to a deadly disease outweighs the rights of the unvaccinated,” she says. “Maybe that will change if vaccination eventually means Covid-19 becomes a little more common, like seasonal flu – though that still kills thousands of people every year.”
“But no vaccine is 100% effective, so even people who have had the shot are still at risk.”
CNN’s James Frater, Sarah Dean and Sharon Braithwaite contributed to this story