Key points
- EU commits to have COVID travel passes in place for Northern hemisphere summer
- The certificates will be used regardless of vaccination
- Australia stays put for now on its international borders’ closure
The development paves the way to a reopening of tourism for Europeans, as the certificates aim to facilitate summer travel for those vaccinated, recovered from COVID-19 or with a negative test result.
Reuters reported on Thursday on a document endorsed by national envoys of the 27 EU member states where they "underlined their commitment to have the framework ready by the summer of 2021."
Referring to the approval of the EU Council position on the so called ‘Digital Green Certificate’, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called it an ‘Important step forward’ for safe summer travel.
For the agreement to take effect, the European Parliament must also agree to the proposal, with final talks expected to start in May.
Meanwhile in Australia, the expectation for borders’ reopening was further deferred this week following the Federal Health Minister’s statements.
“Vaccination alone is no guarantee that you can open up,” Greg Hunt said.
“If the whole country were vaccinated, you couldn’t just open the borders.
“We still have to look at a series of different factors: transmission, longevity [of vaccine protection] and the global impact - and those are factors which the world is learning about,” he said.
