Portugal will be "everything" to guarantee a sanitary passport by June

The Portuguese EU presidency will be "all its possible" so that the legislative process for the implementation of a COVVI-19 digital health certificate is completed by June, the Secretary of State for European Affairs said.

"The presidency will do everything to ensure that this certificate legislation is ready by June.This is certainly one of the priorities of the Portuguese presidency, "said Ana Paula Zacarias at a press conference in Brussels on Tuesday (March 23).

These comments intervened after Ms. Zacarias presided over a videoconferencing of European affairs from the European Union in Brussels, called "General Affairs" council, which prepared the European Council on Thursday and Friday, where European leaders will look intonew on the coordinated response to the Pandemic of Covid-19.

Ms. Zacarias and the vice-president of the commission responsible for interinstitutional relations, M.Maros Sefcovic, who also attended the press conference, however stressed that "the calendar is very tight" and that for the digital certificate to be operational in June, there is "a lot of work to do", at European levelbut also at the national level.

Ms. Zacarias indicated that there is an "ad hoc group" which works on "very technical elements", because the system must be "completely interoperable", which requires "a lot of preparation also at the national level", so that,"When the legislative proposal becomes a regulation, it can be immediately implemented" in the Member States.

"We have a very tight calendar.We must work intensively at the level of the Council and in discussions with the European Parliament, ”she said.

The Secretary of State recalled the importance of this digital green certificate, "important for the Member States in order to bring together all the information on the situation in terms of vaccination, but also of the people who healed COVVI-19 and thosewhich were tested negative ".

"The idea is also to facilitate free movement as soon as possible.We know that the situation is not easy everywhere in Europe.We must show a lot of caution, but this certificate gives us a glimmer of hope that by summer, a little normal life will be able to resume, "she said.

Commissioner Sefcovic insisted on the need to work hard to make the certificate a reality by summer, thanking the Portuguese presidency "for having granted such a priority to this legislative proposal", presented last week by the executiveEuropean.

"We must be ready in three months, in mid-June, which means that there is a lot of work to do in the space of a few weeks.In practice, this means that everyone must do their homework.First, the legislative proposal must be treated urgently.Then, technical work must be done both at European and national level, so that the entire system is operational as soon as the legislation is entry into force, "he said.

M.Sefcovic said he was satisfied with the discussion of the general affairs council of today on the issue, stressing that there was a "strong support" of the 27 for the certificate.

"Of course, the ministers stressed the importance of respecting non-discrimination, which is envisaged in our proposal," he added, adding that by considering the cases of previously infected and healed people and the tests, the certificate does not oblige vaccination as a means of accessing this "pass".

On March 17, the European Commission proposed the creation of a digital certificate to prove the vaccination, test or healing of COVVI-19, aimed at regaining free movement, a bilingual document with QR code that it wishes to see enterin force by June.

Operating in a similar way to a boarding card, this passport, according to the commission proposal, will be available in digital and/or paper format;It will have a QR code to be easily read by electronic devices and will be available for free and in the national language of the citizen and in English.

Both in the digital version (which can be stored on a mobile device such as a mobile phone) and on paper, there will be this QR code with essential information, as well as a digital seal to guarantee the authenticity of the certificate.

The European executive also wants this passport to fully respect the confidentiality rules of citizens' data and be valid in all EU countries.

It will be up to the national authorities of the Member States to issue these passports, Brussels suggesting that this could be done, for example, by health organizations, hospitals or laboratories.

The idea of creating this digital certificate to allow the revival of the travel and tourism sector began to be approached at the beginning of the year, on the initiative of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriákos Mitsotákis, and was then supported by theHead of Portuguese government, António Costa.

If he obtains the green light from the countries, this digital passport should come into force before the summer to allow the tourism sector, one of the most affected by the pandemic, to restore.